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|- 1725, 



1875, 



Anniversary 




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OF NEWBURYPORT. 



PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE PARISH COMMITTEE. 



NEWBURYPORT : 

WiLLiAJM H. HusE «fe Co., Pklnters, 42 State street. 



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THE 

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH 

ANNIVERSARY 

OP THC KOUNDATION OF 

THE FIRST RELIGIOUS SOCIETY 

OF NEWBURYPORT, 



^^GOOZ, 



ORIGINALLT 



The Third Parish of Newbury. 



CELEBBATED 



OCTOBER 20th, 1875. 



NEWBURYPORT : 
WILLIAM H. HUSE & CO., PRINTERS. 42 STATE STREET, 

1876. 



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,'0 



ANNIVERSARY PROCEEDINGS. 



The year eighteen hundred and seventy-five will be especially 
remembered in New England history as the centennial year. Some 
of the celebrations of historic events which have taken place were of 
national significance and excited general interest, like those at Con- 
cord and Bunker Hill ; there were, however, other commemorative 
celebrations of a local character which make a part of present his- 
tory. Among these was fhe one hundred and fiftieth anniversary 
of the formation of the First Religious Society of Newburyport, 
originally the Third Parish of Newbury. This was a memorable 
occasion ; worthy of record in the history of this ancient church 
and in the annals of a community in which it has maintained a 
prominent position marked by a beneficial influence both socially 
and ecclesiastically, for a century and a half. An anniversary at 
this period seemed to call for special recognition, and it was re- 
garded as of sufficient importance to be celebrated with appropriate 
religious services and social festivities. 

The thought of celebrating the founding of this society occurred 
to several members of the parish early in the year, but the suggest- 
ion was not definitely acted upon until autumn, when at a meeting 
of the society called to consider its expediency, measures were taken 
by the appointment of several committees to make necessary 
arrangements for the celebration on the earliest practi£i>.ble day in 
October, an intermediate time, it was considered, reckoning from 
the gathering of the society to its full organization, which would 
not be inappropriate for the anniversary observances. The church 
records, kept by its first pastor, the Rev. John Lowell, declare that 
he " was qalled to the work of the ministry by tlie third Precinct 
of Newbury, August 22d, 1725, having preached (for this parish) 
from June 27, foregoing." His ordination, a.s was stated by the 



4 AKNIVEESARY PKOCEEDIN^GS. 

orator in his historical address, did not take place until January 
19th, 1726. 

This religious society, now the first church in Newburyport, 
having been so closely identified with the social and material welfare 
of the community, it was proper that the celebration should have an 
historical and not a denominational character ; and this was well 
understood without any expressed desire on the part of the parish. 
The arrangements, therefore, were liberal and comprehensive ; and 
among the preliminaries was the issuing of a large number of in- 
vitations to friends abroad and at home and to the resident clergy, 
of which the following is a copy : 

1725. 1875. 

'* In necessariis JJnitas ; in non-necessariis Liber- 
tas ; in omnibus CharitasP 

[Ancient motto from a panel in the house of Rev. John Lowell.') 



THE FIRST RELIGIOUS SOCIETY 

OF NEWBUBYPORT, 

ORIGINALLY 

THE THIRD PARISH OF NEWBURY, 

Cordially invite you to participate in the celebration of the One Hundred 
and Fiftieth Anniversary of the foundation of the church, to occur on Wed- 
nesday, Oct. 20th, 1875. Services in the church will begin at half-past ten, 
A. M. An oration will be delivered by Amos Noyes Esq., a member of the 
society. The religious exercises will be conducted by former pastors of the 
church. A collation, wi th speeches and music, will be served at City Hall 
at half-past one, p. m., at which your presence is particularly invited. 

JOSEPH A. FPvOTHINGHAM, ) Cnmmiffpp 
CHARLES J. BROCKWAY, C ^'^'"^^"^^^ 
MARY J. ANDREWS, f invitations. 

JOSEPH MAY. ) 

The society, as will be perceived, desired to secure the presence 
of all former members and old frionds of the church ; and besides 
these special invitations, notice of the celebration was given 
through the Christian Register of Boston, and the Newburyport 
Daily Herald, to which was added this general invitation : — 

"All past and present members of the society are cordially entreated to be 
present during the day ; and on an occasion of so much historical interest to 



AJSranVERSARY PROCEEDINGS. 5 

the community at large the parish also extend a cordial invitation to their 
fellow townsmen geneially to unite in the public services. 

GYLES P. STONE, 
WILLIAM H. SWASEY, 
GEORGE W. HALE, 
EDWARD F. COFFIN, ) p . , 

ELISHA P. DODGE, } r' •tt 

ALBERT W. GREENLEAF, ) ^omnnuee. 
Committee of Arrangements. 

The invitations met with a most friendly response, not only from 
large numbers in other places who had formerly been connected 
with the society, intimately or remotely, but from towns-people of 
other denominations ; and, what was noticeable and particularly 
gratifying, from the clergymen of the city. The weather on the 
day of the celebration was exceedingly propitious. It was one of 
those golden October days, clear and still, so grateful in the late 
autumn in New England. The exercises in the church edifice on 
Pleasant street commenced at 10.45 A. M., the audience nearly 
filling the pews on the floor and in the galleries of this spacious 
house. The pulpit was simply but tastefully decorated with autumn 
leaves — many-tinted and gorgeous — and with wreaths of ever- 
green ; and over it on the wall hung the portraits of the second and 
third pastors of the society — Rev. Thomas Cary and Rev. John 
Andrews, D. D. Between these portraits was a beautiful floral 
composition in the form of an ancient lyre. Over the pulpit, on 
the left, was a simple memorial in the original gilt figures, "■ 1725," 
vchich has been preserved as the only relic of the first meeting- 
house of the parish, and which marked the date of its erection ; 
and on the other side a similar design, " 1801," the date of the 
completion of the present church building. The exercises were 
as follows : 

1. Organ Voluxtaey: Prelude. Eink. 

2. Anthem: "The God of Abraham Praise." Dudley Buck. 

3. Collect and Responsive Psalm: Liturgy, page 175. 

4. Duet and Chokus: "I waited for the Lord." Mendelssohn. 

5. Prayer: by the Rev. S. R. CALTHROP, of Syracuse, N. Y. 

6. Organ Response: Schubert. 

7. Scripture Reading : by the Rev. A. B. MUZZEY, of Cambridge. 

8. Original Hymn : by Rev. SAMUEL LONGFELLOW. 

Tune by Barnby. 
By this broad stream our fathers made their dwelling, 
Builded their ships, and launched them from the shore, 



b Aira^IVERSAKT PROCEEDINGS. 

Trusting in God when waves were roughly swelling, 
They dared the sea, nor trembled at its roar. 

Honor we still their faith and brave endeavor ; 

Cherish the walls their piety has reared : 
We sail not on the ancient lines forever, 

Yet trust no less in God, whom they revered. 

Our broader day with fresher light beholding, 

Changing the creed, but keeping firm the faith, 
Freely the ancient forms of thought remoulding, 

Asking what word to-day the Spirit saith, — 

We, from the tide-worn piers our ship unmooring, 

Afloat, but not adrift, upon the tide. 
Dame Truth's rough sea; in faith our hearts assuring 

Safe must he be who sails with God for guide. 

9. Okation: AMOS NO YES Esq. 

10. Original Hymn: Eev. W. C. GANNETT, of Boston. 

Tune — "Marlow," Hymn Book, page 182. 
From heart to heart, from creed to creed, 

The hidden river runs; 
It quickens all the ages down. 

It binds the sires to sons ; 
The stream of Faith whose source is God, 

Whose sound, the sound of Prayer, 
Whose meadows are the Holy Lives 

Uprising everywhere. 

So deep it flowed in olden time 

That men by it were strong 
To dare to tame the desert land. 

Charmed on as by a song ; 
And where they passed by hill or shore. 

They gave the song a voice, 
'Till all the wilderness had heard. 

The Fathers' Faith rejoice. 

And still it moves, a broadening flood. 

And fresher, fuller grows 
A sense as if the sea were near. 

Towards which the river flows, 
O Thou, who art the Secret Source 

That rises in each soul. 
Thou art the Ocean, too, — thy charm, 

That ever-deepening roll ! 

11. Prater: Rev. W. C. GANNETT. 

12. Doxology: ^' From all that dwell below the sides." 

Tune, " Old Hundred," Hymn Book, page 43. 

13. Benediction: Rev. THOMAS B. FOX, of Boston. 

14. Organ Voluntary: Postlude, "Hallelujah." Handel. 

Note. All those, noticed above, who took part in these religious services, including the Rev. 
Mr. Longfellow, have sustained intimate relations with the society in the performance of pastoral 
duties or as Christian teachers. The oration was by Amos Noyes Esq., a parishioner and a lineal 
descendant of that Noyes, who, of that party that came to Newbury with Parker, first stepped on 
the shore of our ancient town. The music by a select choir of twenty voices under the charge of 
Mr. Wm. H. P. Dodge, was of a high order. 



ORATION. 



We have met here to-day for the purpose of look- 
ing through the one hundred and fifty years which 
have elapsed since the formation of the Third Church 
in ISTewbury now known as the First Religious 
Society in ^STewburyport. It is well nigh impossible 
for the people of the present time to realize the state 
of society, the manners and customs, the laws and 
observances, the beliefs and the practice, the institu- 
tions and vested interests, which in June 1725, made 
up the lives of those who listened to Rev. John Tufts 
of the Second Church in N^ewbury, preaching the 
first sennon in the new meeting-house; situate in 
what is now Market square. 

OKGAi^IZATION AWD CREED. 

The day on which we meet anticipates by nearly 
three months the anniversary of the full settlement 
or organization of the church. The covenant was 
not signed and publicly read imtil Jan. 12, 1726. 
And perhaps that rather than any merely legal pro- 
ceedings should be regarded as the birth-day of an 
organization intending to concern itself rather with 
spiritual than temporal affairs. This covenant does 



8 ORATION. 

not express with detail the pecuh'ar tenets of any 
one of the religions denominations. There was noth- 
ing in it that to-day would run against the convict- 
ions of Baptist, Methodist or Presbyterian. The 
creed is simply the Holy Scriptures. There was of 
course a suggestion of a triune God, but made as if 
the words Father, Son and Holy Ghost were merely 
names for one being, identical in power and person. 
How feebly they cared to express the idea of the 
trinity is evident from the following, which are the 
exact words taken out of the body of the covenant 
which is rather long to be recited in full. "We avouch 
that God whose name alone is Jehovah, Father, 
Son or Holy Ghost to be our God, and the God of 
our seed, and do make a firm covenant with His 
Majesty in Christ," &c. This is very different from 
the Athanasian or even Kicene creeds, in its absence 
of iterations and amplifications. The Athanasian 
creed for instance endeavors by every form of lan- 
guage to render emphatic and essential the definition 
of a triune deity. But in this creed ever3^thing is 
couched in general language and the essential pur- 
pose is devout and scriptural life. This comparative 
neo:lect is the more remarkable because it was a time 
of considerable doctrinal controversy. Yale college 
had been established at the very beginning of the 
century and placed exclusively under the control of 
clergymen* by the laws of Connecticut, by men who 
i-egretted the declining orthodoxy of Harvard Col- 
lege. The Saybrook platform had been framed in 
1708, with a view to modify the ecclesiastical govern- 
ment of the churchesf, and the first approaches to- 
ward Presbyterian form of government were made by 

*t3 Palfrey 3i2. 



ORATIOX. 9 

it. Up to that time ordinations in Kew England had 
been laj-ordinations, each'chnrch had by its own 
members organized the ordination services, and se- 
lected those who were to participate in them. After- 
wards even among churches who adhered to pure 
Congregationalism (which was the absolute indepen- 
dence of each church of every other, and the election 
of ministers by their church) a practice grew up of 
calling councils for the purpose of determining the 
orthodoxy of clergymen, and arranging who should 
perform the ordination services. 

DIVERGENCES. 

Side by side with this reactionary movement was 
also quietly growing an antagonistic feeling. While 
one part of the community were gradually lapsing 
into a closer approach to the media?val and supersti- 
tious belief in the trinity, and attaching more and 
more importance to the covenant of grace, the pro- 
gressive party was manifesting that phase of progress 
in which an unconscious skepticism produces indiffer- 
ence. The reign of superstition and Calvinism was tri- 
umj^hant in 1692 and 1693, showing itself in the bloody 
witchcraft tragedy at Salem. But an Arian reaction 
immediately set in thereafter, and although in 1693 no 
one disbelieved in witchcraft not even the most learned 
and through this belief Cotton Mather and James 
JS^oyes exercised a despotic sway and terrorism, in 
1725 it is probable that not one in ten really believed 
that there were such things as compacts with the 
devil. This skepticism was a growth of mind. ISTo 
book of note, and no man of celebrity was concerned 
ill ft. Calef's "More Wonders of the Invisible 
World" so appealed to a sympathetic public feeling 



10 ORATION. 

that like " Uncle Tom's Cabin " it might seem to be 
the cause when it was iit reality only a concomitant 
of a deep change in belief. 

The covenant is silent as to hell or a personal 
devil, topics so interesting that the omission must 
have been made in order to be non-committal, in 
order that all might come together, however variant 
their belief in reference to these myths. And the 
pastor, Kev. John Lowell, was possibly Arian.* For 
it is related that in 1751, at a council held in West 
Newbury, the question being upon recommending 
Rev. Mr. Barnard as a preacher, when some one 
moved that he be first questioned as to his belief in 
the trinity, Mr. Lowell rose, and with much emotion 
said to the moderator, " If that question is put I shall 
withdraw immediately from the council, and take no 
fm'ther part in it." The question was not put. l^ot- 
withstanding this opinion held in the very midst of 
the Whitefield excitement, the church at the time 
Mr. Lowell was settled was in full sisterhood with all 
other regular churches, for we find the clergymen of 
the neighborhood officiating at his ordination in the 
new meeting-house on Jan. 19th, 1726. 

AT THE ORDINATIOI^^ OF LOWELL 

Rev. Caleb Cushing of Salisbury, who wrote the cov- 
enant, a most zealous supporter of the new church, 
and very early a champion of it in its struggles to 
separate from its mother, the First Church in ]N^ew- 
bury, gave the charge. Rev. Mr. Tufts of the 
Second Church, opened with prayer; Rev. Mr. Fox- 

*Arian Is used in this discourse throughout to embrace that phase of belief which makes Christ 
the incarnation of the Son of God, but deems the son of God less than the Father in that He was 
begotten by the him and not co-eternal. By Arians is understood that the Son is more than a 
man or an angel, infinite in power, but of finite thought though ante-mundane origin. The 
Arians represent that first attempt to reconcile with reason the co-existence of three infinite beings 
by limiting one of them in time at least. 



ORATION. 11 

croft of Boston preached from II Corinthians, 12: 
13, 14, 15; Rev. Mr. Hale of the Byfield parish gave 
the right hand of fellowship. The disconrse of Mr. 
Foxcroft was very lengthy, being some sixty pages 
of three hundred words each. It is now in print and 
to be found at the Massachusetts Historical Society 
in Boston. The sermon takes the ground that pas- 
tors of churches are parents. According to the fash- 
ion of the time the discourse was divided and sub- 
divided into heads or topics. If the other services 
were of similar length, four hours would not have 
sufficed to get through them. The doctrine of the 
sermon was enforced by numerous and copious ex- 
tracts from the scriptures, and rested on authority 
from them rather than on argument. And it is prob- 
able the fourteenth verse was thought to be a happy 
hit, beginning as it does, " Behold the third time I 
am ready to come to you." For this was the third 
church in ISTewbury, and according to their fanciful 
way of talking it was the third time that Kewbury 
oftered itself to Christ. Before proceeding to narrate 
the chui-ch history, perhaps several facts should be 
presented which may be familiar to many of you, 
whereby the causes of a formation of a new church 
and the deep interest felt in it may be more generally 
known. 

IMPORT AI^CE OF THE MOVEMENT. 

It may be said in general as touching its importance, 
that the age was far more interested in public wor- 
ship in 1725 than it is now. Men then felt that relig- 
ion and ecclesiasticism were one and the same. The 
idea that every man was his own church had not even 
been broached by Swedenborg or any one else. The 



12 ORATIOI^. 

church was then regarded universally as the only 
door to happiness hereafter; and happiness was made 
to depend upon a residence to be had after death in 
a 2^l(i(^^ called Heaven. The conception of a spiritu- 
al existence was even more materialistic than that of 
Mahomet. And although the Puritans had had so 
mnch jealousy of clergymen as to marry without 
them, and bury their dead without a prayer, no pa- 
pistic community ever displayed more subserviency 
to the priest, than the people of Massachusetts in 1692 
showed to Cotton Mather, James I^oyes, and the 
other active» members of the clergy in the witch trag- 
edy of Salem. Cotton Mather declared " that ]N"ew 
Eno^land being a country whose interests are remark- 
ably inwrapped in ecclesiastical circumstances, minis- 
ters ought to concern themselves in politics." True 
it was an elected hiearchy. Congregationalism or 
choice of ministers by the people prevailed from the 
first. And perhaps that profound respect for vested 
interests which came from old England with our fath- 
ers, had in a century lost some of its force, yet the 
position of a clergyman over a church, the first and 
only one in Kiverside Tillage was, from 1726 to 1767, 
or 42 years, proud and commanding. The churches 
were then attended by men, carried on by men. They 
needed no fairs, concerts, and raffles to support them. 
Thev did not even need sociables to keep up the in- 
terest. People unburthened their most private and 
domestic troubles and sins to the minister, who laid 
them before the church. The decision of an ecclesi- 
astical body was of crushing weight, and carried 
with it courts and legislature itself. For the church 



ORATION. 13 

had drawn into itself all interests, pecuniary, matri- 
monial, political : 

1. By its right of baptism it seized on the imagi- 
of the mother ; children born out of wedlock or ir- 
regularly were denied it until the parents had made 
peace with their church, and been received to charity 
as it was called. 

2. The superstitions of the age were dependent 
on it. The church lived on its mysterious power. It 
was believed to hold the keys of heaven and hell. It 
did hold them so far as this life was concerned. 

3. The church controlled and dispensed charities 
very largely. All the sick, the aged, the infirm, looked 
to it as friend, guide, and support. 

4. The church included the political power. There 
was neither honor nor office to be had outside its 
pale. 

5. The church controlled the educational interests. 
Its elders and deacons were school committee. Its 
meetings were the only means of public instruction 
afforded by the times. For then there were no pub- 
lic libraries except the meagre collections of Harvard 
and Yale. The church had to be at once lyceum and 
place of pastime. For the men and women who in 
their hearts were not devout, of which there must 
have been many, would have to take the church gath- 
erings in lieu of theatres and lyceums. 

POLITICAL QUESTIONS. 

It should not, however, be supposed that there were 
no objects of interest outside of the church which 
moved the people. On the contrary, political ques- 
tions even in 1725 were of importance. Gov. Shute 
had favored the policy of paper money issues. The 



14 OEATIOIT. 

money in use was principally old tenor, but there was 
also middle tenor in 1725. These bills were depreci- 
ated to almost one-half in 1726, and old tenor ceased 
to be money in 1750. They were issued because it 
was thought by Gov. Shute necessary to provide 
more currency for trade, which he said in his address 
was languishing for want of money. He lived to 
have his salary paid in this currency after it had de- 
preciated to one-half its nominal value, and to find 
that a currency that depreciated as fast as its volume 
increased could never make money plenty. There 
were also military questions of absorbing interest. 
The wars with the Indians and French were an in- 
termittent source of expense and terror from 1660 to 
1748, and. the public mind was at variance with the 
policy of Governors Shute and Dummer. Yet in spite 
of disorder in the currency, improvidence in war, and 
quarrels between the governors and the representa- 
tives, the colony of Massachusetts Bay was prosper- 
ous, and had attained to one hundred thousand souls in 
1725, according to the figures of Governor Shute. 
The jDopulation of the Riverside Tillage in JS^ewbury 
was probably 1400. Of these the major part were en- 
gaged in fishing, mechanical employments, and com- 
merce with the West Indies, but many of them were 
devoted to agriculture, perhaps nearly all of them 
lived in that semi-rural condition in which the houses 
are surrounded with small patches of land, and a cow 
or two is kept. It was the practice of the new set- 
tlers to use the trees of the forest as if they were 
their own, and generally to fell them for fuel, or more 
wantonly in order to clear the land for tillage. The 
policy of Great Britain, and of her governors here 



ORATION. 15 

was to preserve them for ship timber. The inclina- 
tion of the people of these colonies was for agricul- 
ture and inde[)endence, and to foster manufactures. 
Great Britain wished them to produce naval stores, 
and eschew manufactures in order that there might 
be a market for her woolen fabrics. But in 1708 not 
one in forty but wove his own woolens;* and the 
juries would not convict any one of cutting trees. 

MANISTEES ^\:N^D CUSTOMS. 

In such a community luxury or even comfort in the 
modern sense were entirely unknown. Probably dur- 
ing Mr, Lowell's ministry there was not a carpet or 
stuffed chair in the Kiverside Village, or a mirror 
larger than a pane of glass. Wood and peat were 
the only fuel, coal being unused until even after Mr. 
Cary died. There were no stoves except foot-stoves 
either in houses or churches. The communion wine 
was drunk out of pewter mugs, and what was left 
was given to the pastor.f There was no fire in the 
meeting-house even in the coldest weather. The 
minister took a large part of his pay in spareribs and 
vegetables and other things useful for housekee23ing. 
Help was exchanged, that is, neighbors worked alter- 
nately for one another. There were for a long time 
no j^ews, except for the minister, but a few stylish 
young ladies obtained them after a while, and so 
probably by the beginning of Mr. Gary's ministry the 
benches without backs upon which nearly all had sat, 
must have been supplanted by more commodious 
seats. There was so much crowding after seats that 
it was found necessary to appoint a committee " to 
seat the meeting-house," a work of great solicitude 

* 3 Palfrey. tChurch Records 



16 ORATION". 

and exceedingly dangerous to the peace of mind and 
popularit}'^ of those who had it to do. 

There was strict surveillance over manners. Tith- 
ingmen were appointed, one for every ten families. 
Their special duties were to see that the Lord's day 
was observed. They had a long pole with which to 
rap boys who were unruly in service. They are 
said also in Lynn to have had a fox's tail on one end 
of the pole which they drew lightly over the face of 
any lady who went to sleep. They wxre an institu- 
tion as late as 1837. But before that time the office 
had been burlesqued by the efforts of certain young 
politicians, who chose the most unfit men for the pla- 
ces, with a design to make the office contemptible and 
futile. 

In after times it appeared that the real differences 
between the First Parish and the ultra Calvinists 
were social. The Calvinists having the rustic notions 
that dancing, card playing, and parties of both 
sexes were sinful, but it seems that even in Mr. Low- 
ell's time they did not even sit together in church, but 
on opposite sides of the meeting-house. 

LEGAL STATUS OF A PARISH. 

It should also be stated that in 1725, parishes were 
territorial corporations, w^hich possessed municipal 
franchises in many respects. They chose assessors 
and they levied taxes like towns of the present day. 
They could hire money and enforce by levies through 
their collectors on estates of every person in their 
limits except they belonged to the Episcopal church. 
Congregationalism was the established religion of 
Massachusetts in the sense that it had possession of 
all the parishes in 1725. Parishes raised money to 



ORATIOI^. 17 

support public worship, and to build meeting-houses, 
and also to maintain schools and build school-houses. 
In this respect they were co-ordinate with towns. 

TERRITORIAL BOUNDS OF THIRD PARISH. 

Having glanced at these several points, let us now 
come to the special histor^^ of this little community. 
The Riverside village and the parish were identical 
in interest from 1725 to 1740. Then the comple- 
tion of the Episcoj^al church, erected on Ordway's 
lane, alias Queen street in 1731, alias Market street 
in 1750, broke up the identity. The southern line of 
the Third Parish Avas Chandler's lane, since known as 
Federal street ; on the southwest it was bounded per- 
haps by common pasture, and on the northwest reached 
as far as Ashland street. There are vestiges of a 
creek Avhich covered Water street between Market 
square and the Custom House, and also the lower 
part of Federal street, so that bridges and causeways 
had to be built to go along there. The population 
seems to have settled around this inlet and near to 
the river. In 1725 Fish street was broad, and extend- 
ed from Greenleaf's lane to the water; there was no 
Market square, but the new church was built fronting 
on Fish street, with the pulpit directly over where the 
town pump now stands. Greenleaf's lane at that 
time was narrow, probably the usual width of two 
rods, and extended only to Prospect street. The on- 
ly way of getting to Amesbury seems to have been 
by passing between the church and the river, along 
the river bank to Ash's swamp, where a road led on 
to the high ground, now known as Ashland street. 



18 ORATION. 

GEKERAL ASPECT OF SOCIETY. 

The whole aspect of society was semi-rural. There 
were men engaged in fishing and in voyages to the 
West Indies, and these men were prominent and lead- 
ing, as were also the military men. Hence we find 
Colonel Titcomb presiding as moderator frequently, 
and the subject of a published funeral sermon. And 
we find many instances in the history of the town 
vouched for by nautical men, as if they were oracles. 
In saying that the community was semi-rural we in- 
clude the conditions which usually attend a rural com- 
munity, viz: comparative isolation from the rest of 
the continent, a tendency to great localization of in- 
terest, no common country, very infrequent intercom- 
munication with other colonies. There was little or 
no commerce or change of commodities. There was 
a conscious feeling of caste, a great respect for vest- 
ed interests, an overweening regard for property 
holders, a veneration for men in office. 

JOHN LOWELL AND THE PARSONAGE. 

Rev. John Lowell was born in Boston, March 14th, 
1704. He was the eldest son of Ebenezer Lowell 
and Elizabeth Shaler, and had two brothers — Michael 
and Ebenezer. The eldest Ebenezer. i. e. our first 
pastor's father, was a shop keeper in Boston. The 
grandfather of Kev. John Lowell was John Lowle, 
since the name was originally Lowle. John Lowle 
married the sister of his second wife for his third 
wife and she was named I^aomi Sylvester, . being of 
the Plymouth colony family of Sylvesters. ]N"aomi 
was grandmother of the pastor. The great-grand- 
father or the father of John Lowle was also named 
John Lowle. His second wife and she through whom 



ORATION. 19 

the lineage come was Elizabeth Goodale. John 
Lowle senior came to Kew England in 1639 with his 
father, Percival Lowle. They were of Yardley in 
Worcester, where the family had been for nine gen- 
erations. Thus this family is able to go back in its 
history to the the times of Richard Second. Rev. 
John Lowell was 17 years old when he graduatejd at 
Harvard College, which was in 1721, and less than 22 
when he was settled. Yet he began keeping house 
in 1726-7. In lieu of owning the parsonage, the par- 
ish voted Mr. Lowell <£200, and he to have the land 
bought of Thomas Brown, and pay Mr. Brown for 
it. This Mr. Low ell did, and the deed was taken in 
his own name, and became his property. It was not 
located on Temj^le street as the histories have said, 
]3ut was a lot of land containing about one and three- 
fourths acres, located on Greenleaf's lane or State 
street, and was afterwards sold by his son and widow 
to Patrick Tracy in 1771. The Public Library build- 
ing now stands on part of this land, arid it embraced 
two-thirds of the square now made by State, Green 
and Pleasant streets. There was a house and barn 
upon it, and probably the j^arsonage house w^as moved 
off to Temple street in 1771 to make room for Mr. 
Tracy's mansion. It is pleasant to realize that Tracy, 
who was one of the most considerable merchants of 
I^ewburyport, and who is said to have captured by 
his privateers over two thousand persons, was the 
conduit through which the parsonage land came down 
to the present ownership, and that this same land is 
still of a public character and used for the purposes 
of education. Mr. Lowell was married December 23, 
1725, to Miss Sarah Champney. And a second time 



20 ORATION. 

(about 1758) to Elizabeth, widow of Kev. Joseph 
W. Whipple, pastor of the church at Hampton Falls. 
His first wife died in 1756, aged 52. He had no chil- 
dren by his second wife. By his first wife he had 
two boys, one of whom died in 1736, eight months 
old; the other was the distinguished Judge John 
Lowell, born June 17th, 1743, who was in public life 
as Representative from Boston to the General Court 
in 1776; member of Congress in 1782, one of the 
judges of the appellate court of admiralty, also a dis- 
trict court judge for the United States, with other 
honors too numerous to mention; eminent as a law- 
yer. Other descendants have been distinguished. 
One John Lowell, LL. D., son of the Judge, was long 
an influential member of the Corporation of Harvard 
College, and overseer of the University. Another, 
Francis C. Lowell, son of Judge Lowell, who found- 
ed Lowell mill industry, and that city is named for 
him. While still another John Lowell is known as 
founder of the Lowell Institute in Boston. Add to 
these Mary Putnam the well known linguist, James 
Kussell Lowell the distinguished poet, and Judge 
John Lowell of the District Court of Massachusetts, 
the most patient and clear headed of men, and doing 
more responsible work than any three judges of our 
State courts. Suffice to say that no family can boast 
a prouder name in this land of ours. It has been a 
family whose influence has always been on the side of 
liberty, always democratical without being demagogi- 
cal, just without severity, and instinct with the spirit 
of freedom and humanity. Believing in works and 
in deeds, eminent for charity, pre-eminent for scholar- 
ship and disinterestedness; whether it were duty to 



ORATION^. 21 

the poor factory girls in Lowell ; or free thought and 
unsectarian instruction at Harvard College; or pa- 
tient hearings in courts of justice; or holding position 
among the blind theologies of the eighteenth century ; 
or firing the Northern heart by songs of liberty, this 
family has always been represented and comes down 
in history as the best type of true manhood. 

Mr. Lowell's salary was fixed at ^130 in specie, 
with a contract for adding £20 after the second year. 
This was just $500 in our coinage. But the value of 
money was at least six times as great in 1725 as it has 
been during the last two years. It is therefore equiv- 
alent to $3000 a year at the present time. The parish 
was interested early in education. The very first 
years, notwithstanding the expense of a new house, 
it duplicated the town appropriation, and in 1731 
hired John Woodbridge to teach Latin exclusively at 
£i)0 per year, and he to have 4d or 6 cents a week for 
those scholars who did not belong to the parish but 
wished to attend his school. There was always a 
larger and more liberal feeling with regard to education 
among the people of the Third Parish than was 
shown in Xewbury. It was one of the causes that 
led ultimately to the separation of ]!^ewburyport and 
Xewbary. 

PRESBYTEKIAN SCHISM. 

Keligious matters were apparently going on 
smoothly. But really there was a difterentiation tak- 
ing place in the first and third parishes which showed 
itself in 1713. About this time nineteen persons for- 
mally withdrew from the First Parish in I^ewbury, 
and met from time to time for more than twt) years in 
a small building erected for that purpose on High 



2^ ORATIOlSr. 

(then IS^orfolk) street, just below Federal street, a 
young graduate from Harvard College officiating as 
their pastor. This was an event of great significance. 
Congregationalism was the established religion of 
Massachusetts Bay, and the existing parishes had 
alone the power of compelling by law the support of 
the church. These people were designated as Separ- 
atists, and the pastor and church of the First Parish 
called their proceedings irregular and disorderly. But 
they had precedent in the violent secession of the 
West Parish in 1698, the people of which precinct 
had erected a meeting-house on the Plains near the 
cemetery, being inconvenienced by their remoteness 
from the old church on the Green. These Separatists, 
by the advice of Whitefield, afterwards settled Jona- 
than Parsons as their pastor without the usual forms 
of ordination, and became the First Presbyterian 
church of ISTewburyport. They were not seceders 
from the Third Church, but it was evident from the 
start that the new organization would draw from it. 
Mr. Lowell became, like Mr. Toppan of the First 
Church, deeply concerned for his parish and his relig- 
ion, and the event has shown that the feeling was 
prescient. In 1744 a large number also seceded from 
the Third Parish and joined the Separatists. Their 
secession was owing to a difference of belief. They 
had become more Calvinistic in creed and spirit. This 
was the Great Awakening, as it was called. The re- 
ligious system of Massachusetts was broken up by it.^ 

*0f course men could not be expected to pay rates for hearing doctrine that they did not sym- 
pathize with. For a long time there was a contest in matters of law, but one by one the old terri- 
torial parishes were extinguished. In the place of assessors came parish committees. It was in 
1770 I believe that first legislation was passed impairing the power of taxation, but by an act passed 
Feb. 22d, 1794, TheJirst Religious Society of Newburyport, The Presbyterian, i. e. the South, the 
Third Religious Society (North), The Fourth Religious Society, (Mr. Milton's), and the Episcopal 
Church were made distinct corporations, and given the same power as towns over their members 
to tax either their pews or their estates, and it needed a formal notification to withdraw. 



ORATION. 23 

GEOKGE WHITEFIELD. 

It is pertinent to say a few words about a famous 
preacher who seemed to lead this movement. Kev. 
George Whitefield preached for the first time in JSTew- 
buryport in 1740. He was what was known as a re- 
vivalist or agitator. His ministrations were frequent 
and continued through many years. His special 
theme was that we were under a covenant of grace, 
not a covenant of works, which meant practically that 
the belief and religious tenet of a man were infinitely 
more important than his manner of life or works. It 
is difficult to find among the stump speeches of to-day 
anything more heated than some of the harangues 
called sermons which have been transmitted to us as 
his productions. His manner was to lump together 
all those who did not agree with his peculiar dogmas 
either under the name of Arians, Socinians, Baptists, 
&c., and then with some show of sarcasm to taunt 
opponents with a certainty of damnation unless they 
came over to him. He would then proceed to work 
alternately upon the fears and hojjes of his hearers, 
and to prove to them how useless was a good life and 
unavailing for purposes of salvation. It was a favor- 
ite device with him to picture before them the Great 
White Throne, and Day of Judgment, and to exhibit 
before them the Almighty maker of men as if he were 
a vengeful person. Such a sermon is the one entitled 
^'The Lord Our Righteousness." This astonishing 
fanatic in his sermon entitled "The Seed of the 
Woman and the Seed of the Serpent " classed the peo- 
ple of the First Parish with evil spirits, and is kind 
enough to inform us that a council of the Trinity was 
called to decide upon the creation of the "lovely crea- 



24 ORATION. 

ture Eve." His inflation and self-sufficiency in claim- 
ing to be thoroughly acquainted with Cosmogony and 
on familiar terms with the Trinity may be forgiven 
him, but I cannot wonder that stones were thrown at 
him by men who could not bear his ridicule of women. 
He was accustomed to stigmatize them as weaker ves- 
sels, as the means whereby sin entered into the world, 
which seems both diabolical and cowardly, because 
women at that time were helpless, their public educa- 
tion unprovided for, and they needed elevation, en- 
couragement and enlightenment. His preaching tend- 
ed only to make them more dependent and craven, 
so that thereby he might gather them trembling and 
crushed in spirit into his spiritual shambles. 

There can be no doubt that it has taken modern 
orthodoxy nearly a century to recover from the lurch 
toward horrorism that he and his kindred revivalists 
gave it near the middle of the last century, and if the 
orthodox churches of to-day stand where John Lowell 
and John Tucker stood in 1750, it has been in spite 
of his influence. So great is the power of eloquence 
grace and impudence, that acting upon an illiterate 
botly of men and women he could transmit much of 
his influence through three generations. 

Lowell's belief. 
To continue the history of the ecclesiastical move- 
ment would be to tell how these reactionists contend- 
ed with the established churches. Changes contin- 
ued to take place. The Third Church under the 
ministration of Lowell, and the First Chiu'ch under 
Tucker, verged on Arminianism. And yet as has 
been said Mr. Lowell was never classed as Arian 
even. On carefully considering the whole matter it 



ORATION. 25 

would even be rash to say he was not Trinitarian. 
He was in full fellowship with other churches. But 
he laid great stress on holy life, on good and charita- 
ble deeds. A motto was written in Latin on a panel 
over his fire-place, representing a meeting of ministers 
drinking punch, which was as follows: "In essentials, 
unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, chari- 
ty." When it is remembered that one-fifth of the 
community during the last half of Mr. Lowell's pas- 
torate was flinging texts of scripture at those who 
did not believe the doctrine of salvation by faith, and 
passionately preaching a covenant of grace, and that 
to deny the Trinity was in England a capital offense, 
and so continued until 1804, it is not remarkable that 
the reticence of Mr. Lowell was not universally sat- 
isfactory. 

There are but few of the sermons of Mr. Lowell 
extant. From these it would appear that his style 
was clear and fluent. His writings indicate a philo- 
sophical spirit, some analytical power, and great mag- 
nanimity and moderation. His sentences were long. 
He avoided floridness in language, and hardly in- 
dulged in metaphor. He avoided cant phrases, the 
slang of the pulpit. He does not allude to a Trinity, 
In 1756 he addressed Col. Titcomb and his relatives 
about going to war with the French, on the justice 
of their cause, and their proper conduct in the day 
of battle. He animates their zeal by these words: 

" Consider whether it is not worth while to contend for libertj', not ours 
only, but that of all Europe and America, which is this day struck at by the 
French openly, or subtilly undermined. 

Would you be under a despotic prince ? Would you wear wooden shoes ? 
Would you be dragooned and perpetually pillaged ? Would yoii see an end to 
law, and everything depend upon the will of him that holds such power over 
you? Is not slavery in these respects a terrible thing? But to have the mind 
enslaved is infinitely worse. Poperv, a religion full of absurdities and super- 



26 ORATION. 

stition, cruelty and blood, is carried everywhere with the success of France. 
Would you change your pure and holy religion for one so full of contrariety 
to the gospel ? Would you choose a religion which teaches the adoration of 
saints and angels departed, and prayers in an unknown tongue ? Surely every 
Englishman, every hearty subject of King George, every true protestant, 
should do all in his power to prevent such tyranny, superstition and absurdity 
gaining ground in' our nation or making any further progress in the world. 
But shed no more blood than is absolutely necessary, use no sort of inhu- 
manity. * * * Punish only the guilty." * * * 

HIS FU:NERAL SEIlMO]N^ BY JOHN TUCKER. 

When Mr. Lowell was buried, Rev. John Tucker 
preached his funeral sermon. The discourse is Arian 
in tone as was generally the Congregationalism of 
the times. There had not been a strictly and un- 
doubtedly Trinitarian pastor in Essex county since 
the witchcraft excitement until the agitation of 1743 
began. Ministers according to John Tucker are 
guides, Christ is a guide only. He condemns ap- 
peals to men of remote times like Calvin and Luther 
as authorities. It was papistic. Their sentiments 
should be deemed true or false as they agreed or dis- 
agreed w4th the Avord of God. He condemns the in- 
sistance on mysteries. The clearest matters are the 
most important. He said it was the life and char- 
acter, not the creed, that was to be looked at: 

"That all bodies of divinity, whether greater or less; all confessions of 
faith, whether Scotch or English ; and all catechisms, whether longer or short- 
er, these are all like our common sermons, and to be received as the truth 
only so far as they appear to agree with the word of God, and every man 
must judge for himself how far they do this." 

Of Mr. Lowell he said: 

"He was endowed with good natural powers, which he improved with 
study, under the advantages of a liberal education. * * * He was not 
only acquainted with those polite arts and sciences, which distinguished him 
as a scholar and a gentleman, but was well furnished with that kind of knowl- 
edge which was requisite to forming his character and enabling him, while 
young, to appear with advantage as a minister or the gospel. In his domes- 
tic and social relations, connection and behavior; in his private conversation, 
both as a Christian and a minister, he maintained a good rfcputation. He ap- 



ORATIOIf. 27 

peared to have a serious sense of religion upon his own mind, and his gener- 
al conversation was exemplary, free from everything light and vain." 

" He was a lover of good men though of different denomination and differ- 
ent sentiments, and mucli given to liospitality. And his great reading and 
extensive knowledge iitted him to bear a superior part in converse, so that 
his conversation was generally valued as being interesting." 

" And if in some lesser matters " (by which he meant purity of doctrine) 
" and of a disputable nature, he differed, in religious opinions from some of 
his biethren, yet he was far from bigotry and censoriousness ; and as he ad- 
vanced in life he evidently grew in a catholic and charitable temper." 

PROGRESS or THE REACTIONISTS. 

I have quoted at great length both from the perti- 
nence of the extracts, and because they show that at 
that time the popular doctrine was essentially that 
which of late was taught by Channing. The two 
largest churches of I*^ewbury and that of Salisbury 
were in harmony with their sentiments. The Calvin- 
ism of the Presbyterian churches was reactionary, 
and a step backward toward medisevalism. But it 
was growing up and the troubles thickening over the 
country made men gloomy and despairing, and pre- 
pared their minds for the reception of frightful im- 
agery, and belief in infinite torment. Men like Byles 
of Christ Church and Joseph Sewall, in 1743. began 
to preach and to depict Christ as very God of very 
God. To call his blood the blood of God, and to in- 
dulge in such incessant iterations and platitudes and 
glittering generalities as "Let us choose our portion 
in God;" "What a wise choice he has made who 
has chosen God;" "Everything is his who has chos- 
en God;" "Crimes are Kebellions against God." 
Such iterations marked the low stage of si^irituality 
and the poverty of the intellect of preachers. It was 
nothing but a voice, or less than that, an echo, mere reflex 
action these discoursings about the sinfulness of sin.* 

*The number in full communion of church in 1741 was 355. The parish for many years paid 
an annuity of £30 to Mr. Lowell's widow, gave her a cow-right, and permission to sit in the min- 
ster's pew without tax. They also expended £60 for his burial. 



28 OKATIOK. 

CALL OF THOMAS CARY. 

The church for some months after Mr. Lowell's 
death was without a settled pastor, the pulpit being 
supplied by the parish committee. Rev. Thomas 
Gary was called, after having preached three months, 
and was ordained on the 11th of May, 1769. 

His salary was fixed at £100 a year, and the use 
of a parsonage, but was shortly raised to £125, 
which with the difterence in value of money would 
be $2500 now. In 1779 the currency having depre- 
ciated the society voted to make it equal to what they 
had originally agreed, and to do so fixed it at 
£1300. It was successively raised as currency, (con- 
tinental) depreciated till in 1771, £24,000 or |80,000 
was voted for his salary and incidentals, but this was 
afterwards altered and £300 in specie substituted, 
thus showing that the currency was worth only 
one and a quarter per cent, of its face in specie. It 
then ceased to circulate as money in 1771, in N^ew- 
buryport. 

Mr. Gary was the son of Samuel Gary; he was 
born in Gharlestown, Massachusetts, on the 18th of 
October, 1715, and was therefore in his twenty-third 
year when ordained pastor of the First Ghurch in 
Xewburyport. 

SECOND SCHISM. 

Upon the death of Mr. Lowell, the Galvanistic 
feeling which was slumbering, aroused itself, and 
Mr. Gar}^ received the support of only two-thirds 
of the society. The other third withdrew^ and formed 
what is now the Korth church in Titcomb street. 
This separation, unlike all the schisms that had pre- 
ceded it, was amicable. The church gave to the 



ORATION. 29 

seceders one-half of the chureh plate, but a propo- 
sition to give them one-half of the chureh land was 
negatived. This gift of one-half was an instance of 
true generosity. The plate was treasured for its his- 
toric interest as much as for its money value. It had 
beeu the slow accumulations of years, and the gift of 
the church members, such as Mr. William Titcomb, 
Capt. Stephen Greenleaf and Mrs. Mary Richardson. 
It had been used in part for a generation. The spirit 
In which it was divided was unsectarian. 

The sermon at the ordination of Mr. Gary was 
preached by Edward Barnard of Haverhill, Mass., 
who had had much previous intimac}^ with him, and 
much care over his education. Mr. Barnard's sermon 
is not doctrinal, indeed it is almost to be wished that 
the Cono;reo-ational ministers had more clearlv defined 
their position. It would seem as if they studiously 
avoided this. Perhaps they did not feel deep enough 
conviction on certain points, about which now, at 
least, there is no difficulty in forming or expressing 
an opinion, or perhaps they did not realize the 
immense width of the gulf between the doctrine 
of atonement by purchase, and salvation by precept 
and example. The sermon must be called Arian : it 
certainly was not Trinitarian. It is rather a re- 
markable coincidence that the text was in part from 
the same passages as the text of the ordination 
sermon of Mr. Lowell, viz: ii. Corinthians, XII., v. 
15 -18. 

The church in Titcomb street began as mildly 
Calvinistic, afterwards they were toned up by the 

The number in the parish during tlie first twenty years of Mr. Cary's sole ministration, 
:4eeniR to have been from fiftt'en hundred to two thousand, the smaller number at first and gradu- 
ally increasing. 



30 OKATlOIf. 

zealous and able Dr. Spring, and became veiy decid- 
edly Calvinistic. But they always loved old Mr. 
Lowell, and a separate tax was levied for his widow 
(thirty pounds) so that they might help pay thaty 
which was a very tender and conscientious thing in 
them. 

IN^otwithstanding the growth of Trinitarian belief 
was rapid in I*^ewburyport, Arian Congregationalism 
prevailed elsewhere for many years. This church 
took part in the councils which settled Mr. Samuel 
Spring over the l!^orth Church in 1777 ; and councils 
in East Kingsbury in 1781 ; in the Second Church in 
^N'ew^bury in 1782 ; in Charlestown in 1787 ; in Exe- 
ter in 1790 ; in Harwich in 1791 ; in Kensington and 
Lancaster in 1793 ; with the First Church in IS^ew- 
bury in 1796; in Hampton in 1797; with the West 
Church in Salisbury in 1797; and there was up to this 
date no doubt that the principle and creed were sub- 
stantially the same of all these Congregational church- 
es : that is to say, they were Arian, and we were, for 
no one was called to the council who did not agree at 
all with them on the nature of the Godhead. These 
churches do not appear to have had any fellowship 
with Episcopalians, Baptists, or even Presbyterians. 
If the new century brought with it a new era, it was 
because the French Revolution was paraded before 
the people by the Trinitarians, and by those* troubled 
with religiosity, as a sample of what might be expect- 
ed if the slightest range w^as allowed in religious 
thought. It was safer to be literal, to follow Calvin, 
Luther or Zuinglius, than to interpret scripture by 
their own light. They began to call Cary a rational 
Christian, and he exulted in the name, and probably 



ORATION. 31 

wondered that any one wanted to be an irrational 
Christian. This was then in 1778 the largest society 
in IS^ewbnryport and probably had one-third of all the 
people here in it. The old ehnrch in Market square 
still stood, and though frequently repaired, was good 
for twelve years more of service. The antiquity and 
sanctity of age of this old edifice and its cwispicuous 
position on a triangular piece of land on the JS^orth- 
west side of Fish street, [for that was then the name 
of State street and there was no Market square] , aid- 
ed to draw worshipers and keep up its prosperity. 
Many revolutionary scenes were enacted near it. It 
was there that the " great scare " of 1775 was started. 
The pastor was patriotic and aided the cause of the 
revolution. 

PARALYSIS OF CARY. 

On Sunday, March 9th, 1788, after morning 
service, Mr. Gary was struck with palsy, and it was 
found necessary to furnish him with a colleague. Rev. 
John Andrews was ordained as such on the tenth of 
December, 1788. 

Although Mr. Gary never fully recovered from his 
attack, he had periods in which he was able to go out 
and even to preach. His conduct upon the settle- 
ment of a colleague was generous and under the cir- 
cumstances heroic. He insisted on relinquishing a 
portion of the gratuity which the church had voted 
him, and acquiesced cheerfully in having a colleague. 

ordinatio:n^ of ai^drews. 

Rev. Timothy Ililliard, pastor of the First Ghurch 
at Gambridge, preached the ordination sermon of Mr. 
Andrews, taking as his text the Phillipians, I: 17. 



dZ ORATION. 

This discourse condemns doctrinal sermons. It pro- 
fessed to believe in the miracles and prophecies as 
stated in the Old and l^ew Testaments. Bnt neither 
this sermon nor the charge of Rev. Mr. Shute of 
Hingham were Calvinistic. These discourses and the 
eighteen churches participating in the council were 
Arian Congregational^ among them being the first 
three churches of ]*^ewbury. Rev. Dr. Tucker, the 
Arian minister of the First Church in IN^ewbury^ 
made the allusion to Mr. Cary in giving the right 
hand of fellowship to Mr. Andrews and said : 

" We rejoiced with you in his excellent accomplishments for that important 
station and employment, and from the apparent strength and firmness of hi& 
constitution we hoped with you for a long continuance as a rich blessing tO' 
his people. But what a melancholy alteration in his state and yours! How 
is the gold become dim and the fine gold changed." 

Mr. Cary was not able to be present at the ordina- 
tion, but it is a pathetic fact that he preached the last 
sermon in the old church on Fish street, on Sun day ^ 
September 27, 1801, the day before it was torn down. 
He died in November 1808, and Mr. Andrews 
preached his funeral sermon. He described his col- 
league as a man of fine attainments, as one who re- 
spected free and honest enquirers after truth, and as 
one who was very faithful and kind in visiting the 
sick and infirm. Mr. Caiy left three children, one of 
whom was colleague pastor with Rev. James Free- 
man of King's Chapel. 

REMOVAL TO PLEASANT STREET. 

The destruction of the old meeting-house must 
have been an event in ]^^ewburyport. The sermon 
preached by Mr. Cary on the last day of its existence 
is the only one of his which I have been able to ob- 
tain. It shows no signs of senility or of weak un- 



ORATION. 33 

derstanding ; it is well digested and logical. The 
church premises, described as triangular in form, 
were sold to the town for $8000, and out of them 
we have Market square in its present shape ; and it 
shows the prosperity of the citizens that they sub- 
scribed for $3500 of this sum. The weathercock and 
bell were reserved and transferred to the new meet- 
ing-house. 

It would seem that the numbers of the church and 
society culminated with the removal to Pleasant street. 
But the new church was well filled for seven years at 
least, every pew being taken, and even the gallery 
pews sold at an advance on the cost. Many promi- 
nent citizens belonged to the society during the pas- 
torate of Mr. Gary. Among them may be mentioned 
Patrick Tracy, the three Carters, Michael Hodge, 
John Bromfield, Moses Frazier, iN'icholas Brown, 
Nathaniel C. Tracy, Anthony Davenport, Col. Ed- 
ward Wigglesworth, Joseph Marquand, Brig. Gen. 
Jonathan Jackson, David Moody, and Jonathan Gree- 
ley. ]N^early all of those named were active patriots, 
and members of the town committee of safety and 
correspondence in 1724. They appear often in the 
town records. Theophilus Parsons, the distinguished 
lawyer and jurist, was a member of the society, as 
was also in later times John Quincy Adams, after- 
wards one of the Presidents of the United States. 

It is impossible to be accurate as to the numbers of 
the society, but if the deaths annually recorded are a 
full statement, the people who belonged to the society 
in 1788 were about 2000, and their number very slow- 
ly diminished so that even in 1808 there were as many 
as 1800, of old and young, who belonged to it. 



34 OEATIOIf. 

After the death of Mr. Gary the numbers of the 
society declmed . more rapidly. In 1830, when Mr. 
Andrews left, there was a lack of interest, and at that 
time the whole number was about 900. 

Mr. Andrews had grown old. He had to compete 
with such men as the incisive and energetic Dr. 
Spring, and the learned Dr. Popkin; the eccentric 
Milton too, was a cotemporary preacher. These 
causes co-operated with a local tendency toward Cal- 
vinism which naturally characterized a period of dull- 
ness in business. At this time the educational inter- 
ests were hardly cared for in JS^ewburyport as much 
as they had been or were in other places. 

The society seems to have become avowedly Uni- 
tarian even before the withdrawal of Mr. Andrews. 
Samuel P. Williams preached in 1823 a strong Trini- 
tarian sermon which was very unpleasing to the soci- 
ety, and led to doctrinal sermons by Rev. John Pier- 
pont, who was the champion of the Unitarian tenets, 
and who frequently preached for Mr. Andrews. 

Dr. Andrews was a zealous minister, and after his 
resignation took an active part in the church meet- 
ings, and was sent as delegate to councils. 

THE SOCIETY BECOMES UNITARIAlSr GRADUALLY. 

Thomas B. Fox was the first settled clergyman 
here who could without cavil be classed as a Unitari- 
an. His three predecessors must be deemed to have 
occupied respectively the position of Arian, semi-Ari- 
an, Arminian. There is noticeable with each of these 
a graduated decrease in the quantity of scripture 
quoted. The ordination sermons mark off pretty well 
the steps taken. Mr. Foxcraft's was wordy, stuffed 
with scripture, void of argument, but replete with 



OKATION^. 35 

dogma. Mr. Barnard's was moderate in tone, non- 
committal on the subject of the Trinity, considerably 
reliant on scripture, but condemned sectarianism. Mr. 
Hilliard's was even more negative in its character 
than Mr. Barnard's. And of Mr. Jeremiah Fogg, 
who gave the charge to Mr. Andrews, Bradford said 
in his theological views he was ranked with the Ar- 
minians. "The Rev. Drs. Samuel Webster of Salis- 
bury, Thomas Barnard of Salem, John Tucker of 
Kewbury, "William Symmes of Andover, Henry Cum- 
mings of Billerica, and the Reverends Edward Bar- 
nard of Haverhill, Thomas Gary of l!^ewburyport, 
Ebenezer Thayer of Hampton, and William Balch of 
Bradford, were clergymen who with many others 
gradually departed from the Calvinistic system and 
forebore to urge or profess its peculiar tenets, al- 
though they did not so expressly and zealously op- 
pose them as many have done in later times. They 
also omitted to press the Athanasian creed, or to use 
the Trinitarian doxology, but preferred scripture ex- 
pressions on these disputed points. They did not 
insist as a preliminary to the ordination of a young 
man to the Christian ministry on his professing a be- 
lief in the Trinity or of the five points of Calvinism." 
Mr. Fogg was somewhat nearer Unitarianism that this 
implies, for I learn from his great-grandson that he 
believed in restoration and in one indivisible God. 

There had been several votes of the parish which 
indicated the change which was silently going on, 
and leading toward Unitarianism. As early as May 
1750,* this church had made a great innovation by 
causing the scriptures to be read in public, a prac- 
tice which Gongregationalists generally, even then, re- 

*lst Book Church Records, page 20. 



36 ORATio]sr. 

garded as papistic. A handsome folio bible had been 
given for this purpose by Captain ^neas Machay. 
Under Mr. Gary and Mr. Andrews the society seems 
to have advanced faster than the pastors. 'New hymn 
books had been successively introduced. 

OKDrNTATION^ OF T. B. FOX. 

And in 1831, when Mr. Thomas B. Fox was or- 
dained, the church was so generally known as Unita- 
rian, that Revs. Mr. Leonard Withington, pastor of 
the First Church in ISTewbury, Mr. George B. Gheev- 
er of the South, and Mr. Luther F. Dimmick of the 
I^orth, Mr. Miltimore of Belleville Church, Mr. Milton 
of the Fourth Church, and Dr. Dana politely declined 
to take part in the ceremonies of ordination. Mr. 
Fox was ordained on the third of August, 1831. The 
ordination sermon was by Charles Lowell,* a descen- 
dant of our first pastor, and minister of the West 
Church in Boston. Mr. Andrews had taken leave of 
the society in an affectionate letter, and they had be- 
stowed on him the handsome gift of $1500 He died 
in 1815, in this city. 

Through Lowell, Cary, and Andrews, this church 
had always been progressive, and by gradual steps 
had advanced from the vagueness, gospelism and 
gloom of early protestantism to a reliance on individ- 
ual conscience. It had become Unitarian. That is 
to say, it now began to rely chiefly for guidance and 
authority on the New Testament. It refused to be 
misled or controlled by detached verses of the script- 
ure, or by the letter only. It endeavored to look for 
the occult spirit, and to take the gospel as a whole. 
It insisted on interpreting the Old by the New Testa- 
ment, and both by the light of reason, of common 

*See appendix A. 



ORATION^. 37 

sense, and in conformity with natural laws. It pro- 
tested against Parkerism on the one hand and Calvin- 
ism on the other. There was more doctrine preached 
than had been for a century; and the discourses when 
not doctrinal were moral essays. There was much 
public spirit displayed by Mr. Fox. He wrote and 
worked for education, and especially female educa- 
tion. His work in this field was exceedingly efiicient 
and valuable. Newbury^Dort soon expended per child 
more money than any city in the county except Salem. 
But this was not without angry opposition. The 
letters in the N^ewburyiDort Herald against him were 
intemperate and personal, and but thinly disguised 
the parsimonious spirit of their authors. Public ed- 
ucation was a delusion by reason of the small number 
of teachers employed. It was this discussion which 
led to their adequate increase. He used his influence 
to remove many incompetent teachers, not choosing 
in this action the path of peace. He was specially 
active in starting the Female High School, a move- 
ment Avhich co-operating with like movements in ev- 
ery large town in the commonwealth has already had 
vast revolutionary results, and promises to exert still 
greater on the relations of the sexes. He continued 
his labors here for thirteen years and eight months, 
until April 1, 1846, when he resigned because his 
health required a change, and the exigencies of his 
family were increasing and demanding more money 
than the society could well afford to pay. 

TKAIN^SCENDENTALISTS. 

The same causes which had previously brought 
about a diminution in the society continued in part in 
his ministry. The older members died off, and there 



38 OEATIOK. 

were few recruits from outside. And the spirit of 
thought and inquiry even upon Unitarian ground was 
not quiet. There was wide range of belief; perhaps 
if we use the expressions Liberal Christians for one 
party, and Unitarian for the other, we shall not con- 
vey a wrong impression of the diiferentiation which 
was taking place. The Liberal Christians were nick- 
named Transcendentalists by their companions in the 
church, a word of dubious meaning but intended 
doubtless to be grossly contemptuous. Several cler- 
gymen, viz : David S. Fosdick, jr, in 1845 ; Octavius 
B. Frothingham in December 1846; Samuel Long- 
fellow in February 1847, were severally invited to be- 
come the settled ministers of this church, but the so- 
ciety was without a pastor until Thomas Wentworth 
Higginson, a descendent of the Higginsons and 
Wentworths of colonial times, consented to accept 
the position. This he was not willing to do except 
upon a full explanation of his views. An interesting 
letter from him dated Saco, Maine, August 11, 1847, 
is recorded at length in the parish records. In this 
he insisted on perfect freedom of speech, and freedom 
of exchanges. He also laid particular stress on or- 
dination which he contended was simply the affair of 
the church, and needed no council or association of 
churches to perfect it, and that this was Congrega- 
tionalism. This insistance arose out of a desire for 
intense individuation of churches, in order thereby to 
secure more perfect independence of thought or ac- 
tion. It is the right aud natural position for a man 
or a church to take when it is feared that other men 
or churches cannot be associated with it except at the 
expense of free action. But while it is a right and 



ORATIOK^. 39 

may be even a duty for a church to msist on indepen- 
dence and avoid entangling alliances, it seems self ev- 
ident that such solicitude to keep separate, argues a 
feeling either that alliances will crush the belief, or 
that the belief is so far in advance of any reasonable 
hope of adoption that those professing it must segre- 
gate themselves in isolation from hopelessness of har- 
mony. 

THOMAS W. HIGGLN-SOI^. 

Mr. Higginson was ordained September 15, 1847, 
by clergymen selected by himself and a committee of 
the society. Mr. William H. Channing preached the 
ordination sermon. 

In the pulpit Mr. Higginson was a fearless promul- 
gator of his own individual views, and so far depart- 
ed from the usual practice of the pulpit as to occa- 
sionally select his texts from the apocryj^ha. He was 
very militant on all political questions and topics of 
the day, and consequently excited very great enthu- 
siasm and not a little enmity and rancor. He was on 
the question of slavery an uncompromising opponent 
of the policy of both the Whig and Democratic par- 
ties. He was the candidate of the Free Soilers for 
Congress in 1850, and Avas in all political meetings an 
effective speaker. He was also active as a temper- 
ance man, and in favor of prohibition. When the re- 
bellion broke out he led a regunent of blacks in the 
service of the United States, as Colonel. He has al- 
so shown talents as a writer, and though not quite 
easy enough in his elocution to be generally popular, 
his lectures are learned and thoughtful. He has al- 
ways been prominent in all the radical movements of 
the day, and interested in Spiritualism, Female Suf- 



40 OKATION. 

frage, Female Colleges, &c. Mr. Higginson remained 
with us as clergyman for two years, or until Septem- 
ber 16, 1849, and lived here for some years as a resi- 
dent. His views were not generally acceptable even 
on religious subjects to the people of the parish. The 
church was made by him almost identical with the so- 
ciety, and the Lord's Supper was thrown open to any 
one who proposed to drink wine and eat bread in a 
solemn manner. In all this Mr. Higginson was influ- 
enced by the highest conscientiousness, and had no 
lack of reverence for that which seemed to him de- 
serving of sanctity. 

He did not keep the church records, or any account 
of baptisms, deaths or marriages, 

CHAELES J. BOWElSr. 

There was another interval of over a year in 
which the society had no pastor. On the twenty- 
ninth of ISTovember 1850, Charles J. Bowen was in- 
stalled, and remained as minister until his resignation, 
which took place June 10, 1853. Mr. Bowen was a 
Unitarian of the same school as Mr. Fox, and his 
preaching was regarded by most of the society and 
church as too conservative. The radical element of 
the society desired something more speculative and 
progressive. He was a man who in many respects 
was a re-action from Mr. Higginson. He did not in- 
terest himself in politics or even in public aftairs of 
any kind. He was, however, in his parochical duties 
faithful, kind, and attentive to the sick, and in his 
manners and conversation set an example of urbanity 
and courtesy which won him many friends and made 
him no enemies. He left here to go to a parish near 



ORATION. 41 

Boston, where he was very popular both as a man 
and a preacher. 

ROBERT C. WATERSOlSr. 

For a year and a half after his withdrawal the pul- 
pit was supplied by Mr. Kobert C. Waterston, of 
Boston, who was an elegant writer, and a man of dig- 
nity and character. He is known also as a poet. His 
sermons, like those of .most clergymen of that epoch 
belonging to J;he Unitarian denomination, were not 
controversial or doctrinal. They were elucidations of 
morals, and showed a mind inclined to the systematic 
and philosophical consideration of ethics, and enriched 
by much scholarship and extensive reading. 

At the close of Mr. Waterston's engagement, the 
Rev. Edward J. Young was unanimously invited to 
the pastorate, April 17, 1857, but declined. 

ARTEMAS B. MUZZEY. 

After having been for a year and a half without 
any settled minister or even regular preacher, Rev. 
Artemas B. Muzzey was called, and was installed 
September 3, 1857. The sermon was by Rev. Dr. 
AndrcAV J. Peabody, who while he was deservedly 
the most eminent clergyman of the Unitarian denom- 
ination, must be classed with the more conservative 
portion of it. And so also were all the others who 
had parts in the services of the installation. It was 
significant of the position to be taken by Mr. Muzzey. 
He was a man who believed in the time honored meth- 
ods of reaching the people. He established for a 
time in the meeting-house daily public prayers. He 
invoked and quoted frequently the scriptures, and en- 
deavored to make converts to the doctrine of atone- 
ment by example and reconciliation. He was active 



42 ORATIOI^. 

in public works, a most estimable citizen, interested 
in om* schools. But in his conservatism it may be 
that the tendencies of the age were against him, and 
that therefore his efforts were in the main unsuccess- 
full to carry the society back to the creed which had 
been popular in the early days of Mr. Fox's ministry. 
The science of the Darw^inian and Spencerian school 
had become too potent and influential by the close of 
his ministry. Darwin's "Origin of Species," which 
he denounced as pernicious, has sincfe his time been 
followed up by successive discoveries and observa- 
tions which have revolutionized the science of biology 
and established the improbability of the cosmogony 
of Genesis, and the unfrequency of special Provi- 
dences. The antiquity of man on earth, now placed 
at thirty thousand years, by proof almost as irrefrag- 
able as that which demonstrates the revolution of the 
earth around the sun, had demolished the entire myth 
of the garden and the serpent, Adam and Eve, the 
tree and the temptation, the fall and the curse, and 
the same can only be understood now as the best con- 
ceptions which an age of ignorance could impart to 
account for the existence of misery in the world, con- 
sistently with an omniscient and omnipotent ruler. 

Mr. Muzzey resigned on the first of I^ovember, 
1864, and Mr. S. R. Calthrop supplied the pulpit until 
the installation of Mr. Joseph May, on the twenty- 
first of July, 1868. With Mr. Calthrop the society 
returned to the influences of a religion which sought 
to be guided by the inspiration of conscience, and the 
lio'ht of modern science and observation. A literal 
interpretation of scripture was entirely abandoned as 
impracticable and erroneous. Mr. Calthrop had an 



OUATIOIf. 43 

irrepressible enthusiasm, quick imagination and ready 
spontaneiety, which with great learning and considera- 
ble eloquence made his discourses peculiarly sugges- 
tive and inspiring. 

From the time of Mr. Higginson the church as 
distinct from the society hardly has existed. The lat- 
ter days of this society, its record in the rebellion and 
its work in the community, have not been inferior to 
any. There have gone from it to battle for the coun- 
try on the loyal side, five colonels, and several officers 
of inferior rank. The colonels names were Frederick 
J. Coffin, Eben F. Stone, David Muzzey, Charles Fox 
and Rev. T. W. Higginson. 

COJ^CLUSIOI^. 

And now the long story is told. If you have hon- 
ored me with your attention you will perceive that I 
have endeavored to speak dispassionately of the act- 
ors in this ecclesiastical drama. The contrast between 
the beginning and the end of the one hundred and 
fifty years is infinite in diversity. The first pastor 
was announced as parent, the second and third as 
guides, and the last as simply individuals. In theol- 
ogy the country has witnessed repeated difi"erentia- 
tions, so that hardly a dozen men now agree in theol- 
ogy in all respects. Even the Roman Catholic has 
its sects. In this respect there is less associative 
power than ever, which is unlike the movement in 
politics whereby petty sovereignties have been en- 
grossed by large ones, so that, as Motley says, al- 
though a thousand years ago England was a hept- 
archy, now in all Europe there are hardly seven in- 
dependent nations. 

But this diversity of belief like the disintegration 



44 OKATioiir. 

which formerly obtained in poHtics is but the precur- 
sor of more durable comprehensive unions. Parties 
will always be either of the past, the present, or the 
future, and so will religious sects. This is the natu- 
ral and inevitable condition of things. 

Those who cling to the past will all get together, 
and those of the present and future. The world will 
perhaps in a hundred and fifty years from now speak 
but two or three languages. And if the relative in- 
crease of English speaking people since 1825 is to 
be maintained for the next century and a half, they 
would then number nine-tenths of the population of 
America, and the civilized parts of Asia, Africa and 
Australia. Even now English books and periodicals 
are read by very many more people than those writ- 
ten in all other languages except perhaps the Chinese. 
English literature and English thought on theologi- 
cal and scientific subjects is, therefore, it would seem, 
destined to be cosmopolitan, and to finally prevail in 
the world. Roman Catholicism should lose its impe- 
rialism, its Rome, and its hierarchy. Presbyter should 
be regarded as " Old Priest writ large." The con- 
flict between science and religion be reconciled by 
the complete triumph of freedom and thought. It 
is impossible but that the churches should be repub- 
licanized even as governments have been, and this 
means that they all will be congregational. They 
will all believe in 

" Oke God, one Law, one Element, 

And one eak-oee Divine Event 

to which the whole creation moves." 



SOCIAL FESTIVITIES. 



The services in the church were followed by an entertainment, as 
announced, at City Hall, in Brown's square, corner of Green street. 
The invited guests and members of the society, in number about 
live hundred, gathered in the large hall of the building in the af- 
ternoon, and at 2 P. M. sat down to a substantial repast mostly pre- 
pared by and under the direction of the ladies of the parish. The 
tables, elegantly and bountifully spread and decorated with bou- 
quets, occupied a large portion of the floor, presenting a beautiful 
appearance with the flag and other decorations of the rostrum, on 
which was conspicuously displayed the Rev. Mr. Lowell's favorite 
motto — "In eesentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all 
things, charity : " words happily used on the occasion as denoting 
the prevailing sentiment in the First Church, which has been from 
his day to the present liberal and progressive. 

After the company were seated a blessing was asked by the Eev. 
Randolph Campbell, Presbyterian, and the senior pastor in New- 
buryport. A large number of young ladies of the society and 
others served at the tables. At the close of the dinner the Rev. 
Mr. May, in presiding, first alluded in words of welcome to the 
gratifying number of guests present. He spoke of the pleasure he 
had received in sending invitations abroad, for while his parish was 
located in ISewburyport it virtually extended over the country. 
Invitations to those connected with the society in the past or the 
present, in themselves or their ancestors — went to all the New Eng- 
land and Middle States, to many states of the South and West, to 
those of the Rocky Mountains and of the Pacific, while some went 
across the ocean to Europe. It gave him an idea of the great mis- 
sion of the society as a means of promoting virtue and extendiu" 



46 SOCIAL FESTIVITIES. 

culture over a broad area ; not the culture of a sect but the culture 
of a manly spirit, of high honor, virtue and religion ; and he had 
been made happy by many responses which were warm, cordial 
and affectionate, indicating love of birth-place and religious home. 
He was pleased also to see present members and pastors of sister 
churches. He knew that to many this was an occasion for melan- 
choly reflections ,' that in the church they had thought not more of 
those who were in the pews than of those who were not there — the 
former occupants, the parents who had gone before, and the loved 
ones now missing. Great changes had come and it was inevitable 
that our minds should run back to the excellent men and women 
of other days, with something of sadness. We would have them 
banish the thought that such men were dead, and recall all of the 
past as present — think of them as participating on this occasion 
with us, sitting in the old seats in the church and joining in this 
festival. In concluding his opening remarks, Mr. May alluded to 
his predecessor, the Eev. Mr. Fox, who was at his side ; spoke of 
his successful ministry, his labors in the Sunday school, his valuable 
services in the cause of public school education, and efforts to ele- 
vate the position of women ; how kindly he was still remembered 
in this community and how glad his friends would be to hear from 
him on this occasion, 

Eesponding to the call upon him, Mr. Fox began by alluding to the decora- 
tions he had seen in the church in the morning — a proof that Newburyport 
had lost nothing of taste and love for the beautiful — in the floral offerings 
and their artistic arrangement; suggestive, in the grouping of autumnal 
leaves, of the venerable past and an honored ancestry ; in fragrant blossoms 
and evergreen wreaths, of the mature manhood that had from time to time 
been so active and diligent; and in the freshness of the budding bloom which 
crowned them, of the glad hopes and fair promises of youth. Thus were 
they typical of the occasion — the anniversary of the birthday of an institu- 
tion — and in their blended union, comprehensive intimations of the biogra- 
phies of the successive generations that have been its life for a century and 
a half! 

Of two-thirds of that period, by reason of his intercourse with those he 
had known among the living, he could in a measure speak with something 
like a personal reminiscence — as it were testifying to the health and longevity 
of the inhabitants of the town, as well as to its good repute. It h ippened to 
him, for example, to visit frequently among other aged parishioners, and 
finally to oflficiate at her funeral, a lady who was married by the first minister 
of the society, Eev. John Lowell. She became the wife, when she was, he 
thought, but nineteen years of age, of Dr. Sawyer, a trusted physician and 
eminent citizen ; and died, (in 1842), his widow, at the age of ninety-five. 
She retained her health and faculties, the memory of her earlier days, to a 



SOCIAL FESTIVITIES. 47 

remarkable degree. She resided in the mansion built by her husband at the 
•corner of Pleasant and State streets; was a member of the church, the 
parishioner of four successive pastors, a matron of the old school, taking a 
prominent part in the social and domestic life of the town, at the head of one 
of its leading families. One of her daughters, the late Mrs. Lee, was the 
author of that successful, and in its day popular work, " Three Experiments 
in Living," which had a wide circulation, and may still be read with pleasure 
and profit. 

Uniform tradition, and the testimony of eye and ear witnesses, from their 
own lips or those of their immediate descendants, bore constant evidence of 
the prosperity and good influence of this society. From the beginning it was 
identified with the town, and shared its varied fortunes ; always representa- 
tive of its enterprise and its culture — numbering in its congregations public 
spirited citizens, noted in all professions and vocations, who constituted the 
fine character of the place, made it notable and historic and maintained its 
high repute for the qualities it contributed to the fame of New England and 
the whole country. Its annals abound in brilliant and instructive pages, and 
amid all the theological and political differences of opinion and changes of 
policies, it was ever acknowledged to be a vital and efiicient force, keeping up 
and handing down the enlightened and generous spirit of its founders. In- 
deed it would seem that its tone and sentiment had always been in accord 
with the key-note struck by its first minister, in that chosen motto so often 
quoted to-day: — "In necessarUs,unitas; in non-necessariis, libertas; in omni- 
bus, cJiaritas.'^ 

It was not, however, for the speaker to dwell upon details of the times of 
old, and he could not, as he remembered those he had known, loved and hon- 
ored, and who had passed on, trust himself to refer at any length, to his own 
immediate connection with this society. But he would be untrue to the im- 
pulses of gratitude and affection, if he failed to pay his tribute of respect and 
deep regard to his immediate predecessor, his unblemished and pure life, 
Christian graces and unswerving fidelity to the behests of duty in all rela- 
tions. Dr. John Andrews finished his long, conscientious pastorate, and the 
years of his retirement from it, one of the kindest and best of men in this 
community ; where he was known of all for sterling integrity, for the frank 
simplicity and gentleness of his disposition, the uniform excellence of his daily 
walk and conversation, free from all envy, jealousy and every shadow of un- 
chai-itableness ; ever acting up to his light and standing in his place, in his 
day, a diligent laborer in the vineyard. His successor may and will be nar- 
doned for thus bearing his testimony to the memory of this excellent Christ- 
ian man, this model ex-minister; from whom during years of intimate inter- 
course, he received the paternal, considerate, ever disinterested treatment, 
that could not have been heai'tier or showed a more anxious regard for his 
welfare and happiness, had it been extended towards an own son. Keason, 
indeed, has he to cherish and recall a worthiness that was so exemplary. 

In this connection, and in a scene which would have been of such interest 
to her* had she been present, he could not forbear alluding to another dear 
friend who had been a chosen ministering spirit to this parish, and this commu- 
nity — a teacher, adviser, companion, whom it was a privilege and a benedic- 
tion to have known. Not a few here will vividly remember her bright presence 

♦Margaret Hill Andrews, daughter of Rev. Dr. Andrews, born Oct. 28, 1792, died May 11, 1E61. 



48 sooiaij festivities. 

and wish it were among them, animated by the beauty of holiness, radiant 
with the expression of tlie outshining soul. For were not her days identified 
with this society, and did they not abound with the earnestness of her practi- 
cal wisdom, the warmth of her quick glowing sympathies, the devotion of a 
never forgetful and always helpful friendship ! These were the harmonious 
results of the use she made of the talents entrusted to her keeping, and the 
marked discipline that nurtured and governed a serene, patient, thoughtful, 
energetic and self-forgetting life. Long sickness and suffering only strength- 
ened the fine endowments of her nature ; and the severity of trial did but 
press out as a cordial for others the rich wine of her soiil. Secluded and cir- 
cumscribed as was her career as a whole, you felt and knew she was a remark- 
able woman, with a wealth of good works, treasured up and manifested with- 
out any vanity or ostentation. 

As the eloquent beaming expression of her speaking countenance, and the 
vivacity of her manner come back vividly to our imagination, many of us 
will be reminded of her singular restoration, by which in her maturity, with 
her recovered health, she entered upon her diligent activities, sowing and reap- 
ing the fruitful harvests of her later years. She was, it may be said, born 
into and received her inspiration from this society, and without neglecting 
any other relations, it was within its limits, that from her childhood to her 
death, at three score and ten years, she lived and moved and had her being. 
Kespect for the sanctities of private life, a regard for a self abnegation averse 
to all parade or pretence, will allow merely a hint at events with which many 
here have been more or less acquainted, to note how full of significance and 
beauty they were. 

In the season of her joyous, innocent and promising girlhood, filial duty 
and a sister's love, to the obligations of which she was never for an instant 
indifferent, called her to the discharge of tasks and cares that brought upon 
her physical prostration ; made her a prisoner for years and sent her into the 
exile of a long seclusion, a confirmed invalid, crippled as it were, in a meas- 
ure, resignedly waiting for the early death she anticipated. Here she lived, 
nearly banished from all society, thrown upon a quiet faith and upheld by the 
ardor of a hope that would not be dimmed. Here she lived, serenely, 
thoughtfully and observingly doing what she could, unconsciously fitting her- 
self for the work that was to be given her to do. Two motives that seemed 
ever to grow stronger and stronger within her helped to develope her rational 
trustful and ever present piety and philanthropy. Mr. Fox went on to re- 
mark — I have said that she was concerned for the welfare of the parish. I 
would add that with her, love for the young, who were ever attracted to her, 
was a passion. A quaint and witty remark she once made to me was very 
like one of those with which she was wont to brighten her familiar talk. 
Sportively saying to her, "It seems to me you are particularly fond of the 
company of young people," " Why should I not be," she replied, " were they 
not my companions in my pre-existent state?" 

Under the influence of these motives, helped by changes in the society 
which moved her greatly, she came back to find things as strange and new to 
her, she thought, as they ever would be when she entered the next world. 
She put forth fresh resolution. As she grew stronger she began to go about, 
to use her pen, take up with persistent purpose, renewed energy and enthusi- 



SOCIAL FESTIVITIES. 49 

asm, all the tasks and recreations for which she had special affinity. She vis- 
ited old friends and took alone quite long journeys to see them. 

Thus was she known among you for years, honored and beloved for rare in- 
telligence in the manifestation of her keen and warm sensibilities, and her 
religious principles and fervor of soul. How much, how constantly, and 
with what practical good sense she contributed to the light of home, only 
those who shared it with her, and to whom she was so dear, can tell. Devo- 
ted to the Sunday school, those who were her scholars or associates, who are 
listening to me, will agree with me, that during her long and steady service 
in it, she might be said perhaps to have done for its welfare more than any 
person, by her benignant influence and her unfailing example. She gained 
from day to day and year to year the health she had once never dreamed 
of possessing. She became in her attractive intercourse, her wise counsels, 
and quick sympathies, the faithful friend of all within the circle in which 
she moved, of all whom she reached with her instructive guidance, and her 
well rounded cliaracter. None knew her but to love, respect and confide in 
her. For three score and ten years she dwelt among you, and none who were 
aware of what she was, and all she was to this parish and this town, will ac- 
cuse me of exaggeration, in obeying the dictates of gratitude in referring as 
I have done to one who would have felt so much and so deeply the observance 
of this anniversary of a society which may be said to have been her religious 
home from her cradle to her grave. 

But I must conclude without delaying you by further reminiscences so 
crowded with associations of mingled joy and sadness, of a period personal 
to myself. Sincerely wishing I had been able to respond to your w^elcome in- 
vitation to be one of your guests, by doing more justice to the occasion than 
I have been able to do in my desultory, unstudied remarks, I must again re- 
mind myself that this is the birth-day of a venerable institution. 

This religious society had a liberal Christian origin. It has been blessed in 
all its ministrations from the outset, and done its share in advancing the pro- 
gress and prosperity of the community as thoroughly as any of the churches 
of New England. Its sons and daughters have risen up to do it honor, as 
tliey have remained at home or wandered far and wide. Not a few of them 
have remembered this day; and a goodly number of them, worthy descen- 
dants of worthy progenitors, are remembering it at this festal board. It is 
our privilege to be present at this memorial hour, and to belong to the conse- 
crated fellowship that unites the present with the past. 

The First Religious Society of Newburyport has its wTitten and unwritten 
history from its foundation; the annals of no mean, but nobly consistent past. 
May its future equal that past with its continued line of worshippers, and the 
perpetuity of its educatory influences, among the foremost, as it has been 
through all changes of the Christian institutions of New England, overcom- 
ing all obstacles to its healthful onward and upward growth in all peace, 
knowledge and righteousness. 

Included in quite a number of interesting relics and articles of 
antiquity at the head of the table, was one of the " Washington " 
pitchers — so called from having been made in memory of General 



50 sociaij festivities. 

Wasiiington at the time of his death. The pitcher is white crock- 
ery, and is in an excellent state of preservation. It is decorated 
with his profile and appropriate inscriptions, and bears on its front 
a medallion and the name of the original possessor.* " Eev. Thomas 
Gary." It is not only a valuable memorial, as Mr. May remarked, 
holding it up to be noticed, but of especial interest to him, for it 
had revealed a fact of which he was ignorant until he entered the 
hall and examined the pitcher for the first time. It had enabled 
him to trace a family connection with the second minister of the 
parish — the Rev. Mr. Gary, as he had also found a connection with 
some of the old and prominent families of Newbury and Newbury- 
port, the Sewalls, and Tristram Coffin ; and he would call upon one 
who had a right to represent the old families of the church, one 
who was " to the manor born " — the Hon. Eben F. Stone, whose 
family for five generations had been attached to the society, and 
whose mother — a saintly woman, sweet, gentle, lovelj' and Christ- 
ian, he had known : 

Colonel Stone responded in eloquent words. As the chairman had said, 
nobody had a better right to respond. He now owned the pew of his great- 
grandfather. His family on both sides were members of the First Parish, 
which had wrought a great and useful work. Its distinctive merit had been 
charity. They had believed that Christianity was a life of goodness and not 
simply a doctrine ; and they had ever manifested a spirit of progress. This 
was the first church that introduced the reading of the scriptures into the 
pulpit, and this was the first to introduce the use of the organ in its 
worship, when many decried it as too much like popery. Its founders had 
been of that liberal and intelligent spirit that separated them from the first 
church without strife, and when on the settlement of Mr. Cary, some desired 
to withdraw and form the North church, they were permitted to do so with- 
out ill-feeling, and even with a division of church property. He had heard 
his mother, who remembered that division, say that the two parties were then 
called the "Cary Chickens," and the "Marsh Birds" — after the two pastors, 
Cary and Marsh. The early history of the society was identified with that of 
the tOTvn, and it had largely contributed to the enterprise, intelligence and 
patriotism of our city, ever keeping up with the times; and he trusted that 
for the one hundred and fifty years to come it would be as useful as in the one 
hundred and fifty years past. 

Here music was introduced by the Orpheus Quartette Club, of 
this city, followed at intervals by songs and duets from several fa- 

♦This memorable pitcher descended from Rev. Thomas Cary to his son, Key. Samuel Cary, 
rector of King's Chapel in Boston, by whose widow it was bequeathed to Mrs. Samuel Curson, the 
mother of Mrs. John A. Hoxie of Cursoa's Mills, and by the latter it was most kindly and consid- 
erately presented to the Rev. Joseph May on his wedding anniversary about a week after the re- 
cent celebration, and as a souvenir of that most interesting occa.«ion. As Mrs. Gary subsequently 
became the wife of Col. Joseph May, long one of the wardens of King's Chapel and grandfather of 
the present possessor, it has for the latter a family interest, as well as that which connects it with 
the recent festivities. 



SOCIAL FESTIVITIES. 51 

vorite female singers. These artists were warmly applauded, and 
their gratuitous services formed a very pleasant part of the after- 
noon's entertainment.* At the conclusion of the quartette singing 
the chairman said he would next call upon a clergymen of the Con- 
gregational faith, who, in his long pastorate of one of our city 
churches had always taken a deep interest in historical matters 
more especially pertaining to this neighborhood and county ; a gen- 
tleman who had rendered efficient service in promoting the social 
welfare of the community on the board of school committees, in the 
management of our public library, and in various ways auxilliary 
to the duties of his profession ; and who had in his country's peril 
manifested his patriotism by sacrifices of personal comfort. Mr. 
May introduced the Rev. Samuel J Sj)alding, pastor of the White- 
field parish. Dr. Spalding responded : 

It is with pleasure, Mr. Chairmau^ that I follow with a few words of con- 
gratulation, my friend, Colonel Stone. I have followed him before, when 
our national existence was imperilled, and I have never regretted it. When 
I saw him in the hard service of the camp and the field, I learned three 
things about him which I could not have known as well anywhere else — bis 
patriotism, his courage and his incorruptible integrity. The place which was 
so well filled in the late war by himself and others representing this First Ke- 
ligious Society, is conclusive proof that the spirit of the fathers as exhibited 
in the Indian and French wars and in the war of the Eevolution still exists 
in the children. There is one pleasant reminder of those early times in the 
sermon of the first pastor of this church, ''Preached at Newbury, May 22, 
1755, at the Desire and in the audience of Col. Moses Titcomb and Many 
others inlisted under Him and going with him in an expedition against the 
French." 

This is the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of this church. The fact 
that an organization has lived so long is evidence of its value, and of the ex- 
cellence of its foundations. These were laid in the long and prosperous min- 
istry of Rev. John Lowell. It was the church of the "river side people," 
and for some twenty years was the only church in what Is now Newburyport. 
Both the parish and the community have occasion to remember with grati- 
tude the forty-one years ministry of Rev. John Lowell. It had a strong for- 
mative influence in producing two results on which we may well congratulate 
ourselves — the interest felt in the education of our children, and the intelli- 
gence and excellence of the women of old Newbury and Newburyport. Few 
communities have educated in college so large a number in proportion to' the 

*The following named gentlemen compose the club : — Messrs. George H. Pearson, first tenor; 
Edward McLaughlin, second tenor ; George H. Stevens, first base ; William H. P. Dodge, second 
base. The ladies who sang were Mrs. N. G. Fuller, Mrs. Edw. McLaughlin and Miss .lulia Welle. 
Mr. Norman McLeod prp:-ided at the piano, and he was also the church organist in the religious 
part of the morning celebration. The regular quartette choir of the First Church is composed 
of Mr. Dodge, director ; Mrs. Dodge, soprano ; ami Mr. and Mrs Edward A. Hale, with Miss Ella H 
Adams as organist. In allusion to the music in the church, it is proper to remark, if any one is in- 
clined to be critical, that in singing Dudley Buck's noble composition, the words of the anthem 

" Hail, Father, Son and Holy Ghost," were changed by the choir to '' Glory to God, good will to 
men," as more in conformity to the tenats of the Unitarian church. 



52 SOCIAL FESTIVITIES. 

population as Newburyport. And it is noticeable how many marked men 
who are the centres of intellectual and religious influence elsewhere, trace 
what they most value back to our old town, which throws out its rootlets far 
and wide. I have a sermon dated March 26, 1758, preached by Mr. Lowell on 
" The laudable character of a woman, occasioned by the death of Mrs. Han- 
nah Kent, relict of Col. Richard Kent," describing very forcibly " the graces 
and virtues which eminently shined in her life and conversation." Thus we 
see that long ago was commenced that succession of noble women who have 
made a lasting impression on the religious and social character of this city. 

When I first came here, almost a stranger, it was my privilege to become 
well acquainted with Miss Margaret Andrews, whose strong good sense, gen- 
ial humor, large-hearted benevolence, and indefatigable charity endeared her 
to all who knew her. I can never forget the friendship of Mr. John Porter, 
whose gracious prescence, generous sympathy, and kindly hospitality contrib- 
uted so much to the social charms of Newburyport. Many other noble men 
and women who have been identified with this religious organization have 
left fragrant memories of good deeds, and many still live to work a beneficial 
influence in matters of culture and true bonevolence. 

In this parish, as in the great world, two tendences have been prominent — 
the radical and the conservative. The best results have been secured when 
they counterbalanced each other, so that the one should not become destruc- 
tive, nor the other retrogressive. 

We congratulate the parish on all the fruitage of good it has borne ; and 
give it our hearty wishes that the prosperity to come may be worthy of the 
noble old tree planted here " on the river-side," one hundred and fifty years 
ago. 

Mr. May said he would now call for a speech from the well 
known author of a story, which he noticed by the play bills had 
been dramatized and performed a few nights ago in this hall. The 
author goes by the name of " Philip Nolan," sometimes, and the 
Newburyport people are always glad to see and hear him in the pul- 
pit or on the rostrum. Every body reads his instructive and en- 
tertaining stories and other writings, which are enriching the liter- 
ature of our country. How this cosmopolite accomplishes so much 
is a marvel to some of his friends. His industry must be as great 
as his genius is fertile. As a mathematician, how charmingly he 
has illustrated " Six of One and Half a Dozen of the Other," and 
told us that " Ten Times One are Ten," and how a man should al- 
ways do " His Level Best." This "Philip Nolan " declares him- 
self to be '' A Man without a Country," but we claim him as be- 
longing to Newburyport, and by virtue of an ancestry distinguished 
in the early annals of old Newbury. If there is a genealogist 
present who would like to do him a favor and earn a little hard 
cash, the opportunity now offers. I received a letter a day or two 



k 



SOCIAL FESTITITIES. 53 

since, which I will now read, offering a reward for certain informa- 
tion : — " I will give six pence to any one who will tell me where 
Samuel Hale lived, who was born in 1687, in Beverly, married Ap- 
phia Moody in Kewbury, in 1714, and afterwards removed to 
Portsmouth." 

Mr. May introduced the writer, Edward Everett Hale : 

Mr. Hale said he would renew the offer, the six pence to be paid in the best 
scrip of the country, and if they ever gave us a hard currency, from the "big 
bonanza" of Newburyport. He knew that he came from the Moodys of this 
town, and from Robert Hale of Beverly. TVhen Samuel Hale came from 
Beverly to Kewburyport, or where he lived, was doubtful ; but that he came 
he was certain. His wife, present, had no doubts; she was from John Per- 
kins of Ipswich, the first man who prospected Newbury, and asked permis- 
sion to settle within its limits. Between them they could claim to be of New- 
bury stock, and he was proud of that lineage. He referred to the words of Ed- 
mund Burke complimentary to our seamen and commerce, claiming them for 
Essex county men. Plymouth Roclj»was the Blarney Stone of America, and 
Mr. Hale said, that when he had been in that section and heard them tell of 
Cape Cod extending out into the sea, as the right arm of Massachusetts, he 
felt like doing a little bragging for Essex county — the left arm of the Com- 
monwealth. 

A Boston boy, he said, proud of Boston, and always eager to boast of her 
laurels, I cannot but remember the history of the Boston Port Act. That act 
was passed in the English parliament for the sake of destroying Boston. The 
seat of government was transferred by Governor Gage from Boston to 
Salem. And I like to recollect how Salem spurned the bribe. I like an op- 
portunity as good as this, is to remind any audience that it was tlie militia of 
Essex county under Pickering, who appeared in arms at Salem North bridge 
to check Leslie's invasion, before whom he turned back defeated — the first 
victory of the Revolution — won in the February before the battle of Lexing- 
ton. It brings tears to my eyes always when I remember the march of the 
flank companies of that regiment across the county on the day of Lexington 
itself, when as has been said, the men of Danvers rushed rather than marched 
to the field of danger, — " flying into the jaws of death in an eagerness like 
that which lends wings to cowards to escape from danger." To the success 
of their brethren of Middlesex that day, the men of Danvers alone contribu- 
ted one-sixth of all the loss of that field of battle. I remember, as you remem- 
ber, how the Essex county privateers brought in to Washington the powder 
and cannon, without which the redemption of Boston was impossible. I re- 
member the service of Pickering in the discipline of the army, and in the te- 
dious years of the well fought war. I remember the Essex county seamen 
boarding the British Lion even in the chops of the channel, — carrying terror 
to the Exchange of London itself as the war went on. You remember, sir, 
how bravely your own Captain Dole here seconded Paul Jones on that terrible 
night when the Bonne Homme Richard grappled with the Serapis, in sight of 
the English shore. And you remember, sir, that it was a Newburyport man 
— and one of this parish, I am told — who first showed the new flag in the 



54 SOCIAL FESTrV^ITIES. 

Thames when the war was over. I remember, as you remember, to whom 
we owe the title of discovery to Oregon — the discovery which led to our em- 
pire on the Pacific — a discovery wrought out in the pluck and daring of your 
Esses county seamen. Burke had pronounced their eulogy long before. For 
when Burke says of the Americans that they had vexed both oceans with their 
fisheries, the honors which he is conferring are the honors which need not be 
divided of the seamen of Nantucket and Essex county. 

In all this history, for two centuries and a half, there is but one little sum- 
mary, the frenzy of a few months, which men wish could have been unwrit- 
ten, or wiped out of memory. This is the history of the witchcraft. And of 
that wretched frenzy it is fair to say here, how it came to an end. It ended 
the day when the delusion went so far as to charge with witchcraft one of 
your Newburyport women. Whatever else was true all men knew this was 
false. They knew she had no witcheries about her, but those which these 
girls around me and these matrons, their mothers, use this living day. Mad- 
ame Hale a witch ! This was impossible! And with that fortunate charge 
the spell was broken at once, and in the charms of a woman of Newburyport 
the end of the Salem witchcraft came ! 

And nothing is so easy, said Mr. Hale in conclusion, as to connect these as- 
sociations with the history of this church. Whatever doubts people may have 
elsewhere, Mr. Chairman, as to the possible work of your and my profession, 
it would be hard to maintain such doubt in presence of the associations of 
to-day. Not to speak of your own ministry, Mr. Chairman, or of those of 
Mr. Higginson, Mr. Bowen, Mr. Waterston, Mr. Muzzey and Mr. Calthrop, 
of which I might say so much ; to speak only of the first four ministers of 
this church as their influence has been presented to us to-day, — where will 
you rival such successes as theirs, in all that tends to build up the noblest 
Christian civilization ? The name of Lowell, from the beginning of the his- 
tory of this church has been all wrought in with the history of civil liberty in 
this nation. The Lowells of every generation have been true to the inspira- 
tion by which when the Bill of Rights of Massachusetts was written, your 
own Lowell here, wrote in the words which, from that moment, made slavery 
impossible in Massachusetts : — "All men are born free and equal." In an- 
other series of associations the name of Cary is all written in with the history 
of religious liberty, with the rights and powers of the independent congrega- 
tion worshipers. The work of Dr. Andrews, as we have been reminded this 
afternoon, is fitly and well carried on at this moment by those of his own 
blood on the shorei of both the oceans which wash America. And if I only 
spoke of the men and women who were boys and girls in the Sunday school 
of his successor ; if I only spoke of impulses which have gone out from him 
in the religious training of the young all over the land, why, I should speak 
of powers which are at work this moment in every state and in every conti- 
nent under heaven. 

The chairman said he would now call upon one of the worthy 
sons of Newburyport whom he was glad to know ; one who is dis- 
tinguished in the Baptist denomination — Rev. Samuel L. Cald- 



I 



SOCIAL FESTIVITIES. 55 

well, professor in the Newton Theological School of th<ii^ state. Dr. 
Caldwell responded : 

I appreciate the courtesy which allows me to speak here to-day for the ab- 
sent sons of Newburyport. I respond altogether to the sentiments of Mr. 
Hale in regard totliis left hand corner of Massachusetts, which I have always 
thought the happiest corner of the world. My ancestors on both sides have 
been of this eastern coast of the county of Essex from the very beginning. 
Like Scott's hero in Rob Roy, my foot is on my native heath, and I never fail 
to feel the inspiration there is in the touch of the old soil. Nowhere, far or 
near, does the sky come down upon the land and the sea with a fairer charm 
for my eyes than here on this slope of the Merrimack. And far as we go, the 
untravelled hearts of her sons are always coming back with a sort of filial 
pride in their birth-place. They go everywhere and find it hard to get away 
from Newburyport wherever they go. I heard but yesterday a story of some 
clergyman going to Portland in Oregon with a lecture in which he had occa- 
sion to mention our beautiful cemetery, in which so many of us hope to be 
buried, as probably unknown to any of his hearers. Whereupon eight gen- 
tlemen remained to invite him to dine the next day, all of them from New- 
buryport. My friend. Bishop Clark, tells the story of Dr. Tyng — both of 
them holding high place among the numerous clergymen supplied by the old 
town — that in his travels abroad, he sat down to dinner under the Shadow of 
the great pyramid, with the reflection that at last he had reached a place 
where he should hear nothing of Newburyport. But as he rose he found 
he had been sitting on a keg marked "Mess Mackerel, No. 1, J. Thurlo, In- 
spector, Neioburyport, Mass. " 

You have seen fit, Mr. Chairman, to couple my name with some allusion to 
the Baptists. The time was, I believe, when they were not so altogether wel- 
come in this colony of Massachusetts Bay as you make us here to-day. My 
predecessor, Roger Williams, the first minister of the church in Providence 
which I have served for some years, left these parts somewhat suddenly, it is 
said, and with intimations that there was not quite room enough for him. My 
church has the advantage of you by nearly a century in age, and worships in 
a meeting-house dedicated a hundred years ago last May. A century and a 
half, however, is a long life for a church, and it shows vitality somewhere, 
and a root among the durable and everlasting things of religion, that you 
have lived so long. Long may you live, and grow greener and fairer with the 
flight of years ! The courtesies of this occasion may bring us no nearer to- 
gether in our opinions, but they do in the mutual respect and charity which 
overpass all differences. The kingdom of God is larger than any man's 
thought, possibly than all men's thoughts; it is larger than any church, pos- 
sibly than all the churches ; it goes forward by many instruments, and in 
ways past our finding out. Through the unities and the diversities an increas- 
ing purpose runs, and out of the very oppugnancies and frictions which we dep- 
recate, truth is made clearer, and God's kingdom and glory comes. Possibly 
Whitefield who by dying here has given our town whatever name it has to som e 
people, paint him in what ugly colors you will, has a place and did a work in 
the religious history of America, better, at any rate greater than you think, 
was the Providential agent in a spiritual movement larger in its meaning and 
its result than your excellent orator of this morning seemed willing to allow. 



56 SOCIAL FESTIVITIES. 

I must not, however, take more of this hour which you have made so pleas- 
ant for us all. I thank you, Mr. Chairman, for giving me a moment of it to 
join with you in the recollections and congratulations of an anniversary so 
fortunate in the soft splendor of this autumn day, so delightful to you, and 
8o agreeable every way to the sons and citizens of this ancient town, of 
whatever name. 

Mr. May then remarked that it would have given him great 
pleasure to have had Harvard University represented in the person 
of one of its professors, Kev. Dr. Peabody. His engagements pre- 
vented him from being present ; but he would read a letter from 
him. 

Cambridge, October 16, 1875. 
My Dear Mr, May: When I first knew of the proposed celebration of the 
one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of your church, I expressed the earnest 
hope that it would occur on one of the days of the week when it is 
possible for me to release myself from college duties. Very few, even of 
your present parishioners, can have so many interesting, sacred, happy, inti- 
mate associations as I have with your church. Still a divinity student, I at- 
tended Mr. Fox's ordination; I preached for the first time in the church as 
early as 1832, and for many years thenceonward felt more at home in its pul- 
pit than in any other except my own ; while I formed with various members 
and families of the society most of them no longer living, but some of them 
still growing old with myself — relations of close and cordial friendship. With 
your venerable predecessor, Dr. Andrews, I was for the last years of his life 
intimately acquainted, and on terms of intercourse on my part reverent and 
loving ; and on his hospitable and kind as you know the home and hearts of 
his children to be. I wish I could be with you next Wednesday to talk about 
those old times. My only fear would be that I should find more to say than 
my fellow guests would have patience to hear. But they will be spared the 
trial. In the arrangement of college work, Wednesday is with me a full day. 
I have recitations both morning and afternoon, and as in the morning I have 
with me part of a class in a system which includes Monday and Friday in a 
weekly cycle, I cannot omit my Wedneaday's exercises without deranging my 
department for the entire college ypar. This I have no right to do, and rather 
than do it I have repeatedly declined engagements of the most attractive char- 
acter, though seldom or never one which I was so sorry to forego as I am to 
lose your festival. 

With my best wishes for the success of the day, and the most sincere per- 
sonal regards, I am as ever. 

Your friend and brother, 

A. P. PEABODY. 

Mr. May also regretted that they were disappointed by the ab- 
sence of James Russell Lowell, the poet ; a descendant of old Per- 
cival Lowell, himself a poet, but he would read the following letter 
from Dr. Lowell, of the Episcopal church. Professor at Union Col- 
lege, and known as an author : 



SOCIAL FESTIVITIES. 57 

Union College, October 15, 1875. 
Reverend and Dear Sii- : I am very much obliged for your kind and hos- 
pitable letter of invitation to the celebration of the Third Parish of Newbury. 
The town is a dear old town to any who have associations with it; and its 
graveyards I have searched all over years ago ; and there, last, I saw with 
youthful eyes, and venerated by making obeisance to it, -the majesty of the 
law represented in a black cockade on the every-day hat of the deputy sheriff. 
There, too, sitting in summer musing about the good folk of generations 
agone, through whom the earthly being had come down to me, the still shim- 
mer of the salt meadows and the sheeny haze of the eastern landscape, and 
the strong smell of the great sea that toviched all shores of all lands and ages, 
gave body and back-ground to all thoughts and fancies ; and I rejoiced that 
the old town of which I was to cherish memories through life, was a seaport 
town. Such a figure as that of the kindly first pastor of the Third Parish, 
with his peaceful pipe and words of good cheer, is a pleasant one to turn to, 
in one's backward thoughts, like the good old town. And then, too, as all we 
Americans are fond of following to the first, the line of those of our stock 
and name, who have lived their lives and done their work, under king and 
commonwealth, in the land of their seeking-out, to Newbury came the first 
Lowle, who set up (if not his Ebenezer, yet the father of) his Ebenezer, in 
business there. There is a strong drawing toward your commemoration ; but 
I fear the only share — and that I hope for — which my engagements will allow, 
will be the reading-over and reading-over again the account of your great do- 
ings on the hundred and fifty years' anniversary which, I hope, will be a real 
centennial and a half. That enjoyment I expect to lay away in memory with 
the pleasure from your kind letter, and among the instincts which will be al- 
ways coming fresh out of my blood. 

I am, reverend dear sir, very respectfully and traly, yours, 

EGBERT T. S, LOWELL. 

[It happens that the seal of the university lately developed out of Union 
college, bears for its legend, the same motto as that which you quote from 
the panel of my great-grandfather.] 

The unavoidable absence of Colonel Higginson was also a great 
disappointment. The former pastor of the First Religious Society 
would have received a most cordial welcome to this anniversary 
festival. We must content ourselves, added the chairman, with a 
letter from him : 

Newport, R, L, October 18, 1875. 

Dear Mr. May : Thank you cordially for the invitation to take part in the 
church festival of day after to-morrow. 

I have many pleasant associations with the church and society you repre- 
sent. If I ever had any that were otherwise than pleasant, they have long 
since faded away. I had looked forward with pleasure to being with you at 
the festival, and meeting my old friends and associates and their children. 
But unfortunately for me, a day has been selected on which I had already a 
previous engagement (out of New England) from which I cannot extric;ite 
myself, and I must therefore be absent from your gathering and send only my 
good wishes. 



58 SOCIAL FESTIVITIES. 

It has always been said that men and women live to a good old age in New- 
buryport ; it is very certain that churches do this. A fine flavor of antiquity 
is certainly suggested when you select the centennial period of the nation to 
celebrate the century and a half birthday of an institution. When the "First 
Keligious Society" of Newburyport was fifty years old, the nation was born! 
This well illustrates' the fact that the principle of religious liberty is older than 
the nation and that our institutions were really founded on it. The name of 
your society is one most honorable to bear. It carries with it no sectarian 
narrowness, and never can be outgrown. May it be maintained till all walls 
of separation shall be laid aside, and all the citizens of Newburyport shall 
constitute but one " Religious Society." 
Yery cordially, yours, 

THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. 

Mr. May said he intended to have introduced for some remarks, 
the pastor of the North Church (Rev. C. E. Seymour) hut he has 
unexpectedly been called from the hall. A former member of our 
own society, who was also connected with its Sunday school, we 
are glad to have with us to-day ; and I will now introduce Charles 
W. Tuttle, esq., of Boston. He responded as follows : 

Mr. President : The fame of Newburyport justifies one in looking around 
to find some title to be reckoned a descendant. I remember looking along my 
own line of descent, many years ago, and finding, to my surprise, for I- had 
supposed that I was entirely of Piscataqua lineage — one that led up to 
Nicholas Wallingford of Ould Newburry in the seventeenth century. He 
was an Englishman, an early emigrant to this town, and a mariner, a vocation 
since made renowned by Newbury men. In 1680, almost two hundred years 
ago, he sailed for Europe, and while on his voyage was taken by a Barbary 
corsair and died in captivity. He left a sorrowing widow, a woman of sterling 
traits of character, worthily sustained by the daughters of this ancient town, 
and several young children. One of these orphans grew to manhood, mar- 
ried in the province of New Hampshire, and had a son Thomas Wallingford, 
who was long a judge of the high judicial court in that province. I only ob- 
serve that this is an early illustration of that eminence to which natives of 
Newbury have ever since been accustomed to reach in other places. With 
this title to a birthright among you I must be content. 

The history of this society, so fully and so graphically given to us to-day 
for the first time, justifies a feeling of pride and satisfaction. Its origin, co- 
incidino- -with two memorable events, the religious movements in favor of the 
revival of synods, and the last of the Indian wars in New England, is not 
so remote as that of many religious societies. But the quality of its pastors 
and members, and the rank it has among other societies, during a century 
and a half, amply supplies what it may lack of age. 

The first chapter of its history is made luminous by the presence of a 
family name that has become illustrious in our New England history. We all 
know that for many generations the name of Lowell has been distinguished 
in New England. It has become a synonym for the highest culture among 
us.' It is only recently that one of this name and lineage, known wherever 



I 



gOCIAI. FESTIVITIES. 59 

English verse falls rhythmically on the ear, was summoned to the halls of the 
renowned universities of England, to receive the highest honors which they 
were authorized to bestow. If anything is wanting to complete the interest 
of this occasion, it is the presence of this bard, the descendant of your first 
pastor. It is not to be forgotten that the name of this noble river is forever 
united with the name of Lowell in the history of one of the greatest manu- 
facturing enterprises of New England. 

It is eighteen years since I first became a teacher in your Sunday school. 
To this undertaking I was urged by the Rev. Mr. Muzzey, then recently set- 
tled here. He placed in my charge four young men : Goodwin A. Stone, 
Charles C. Balch, David P. Muzzey and Edward F. Coflin, whose subsequent 
careers are worthy of notice on this occasion. I should be wanting in sensi- 
bility, in appreciation of character and moral worth, if I did not feel a pride 
and interest in these names. Young Stone and Balch were preparing for col- 
lege, and they graduated at Cambridge in the same class in 1862. In both I 
saw the marks that indicate future distinction. The first was endowed with 
graces of mind and lineaments of beauty, that reminded of Arthur Henry Hal- 
lam; and the second with a clear intellect and an inquisitive metaphysical 
understanding. Mr. Stone was a captain in the Massachusetts cavalry during 
the civil war, was distinguished for capacity and courage, and died of wounds 
received In battle, in 1864. Mr. Balch met with an accidental death a year or 
two earlier, and before his powers of mind became publicly known. Of the 
two others I need only say that one was a lieutenant-colonel in the Massachu- 
setts cavalry in the war, afterwards graduated at the divinity school at Cam- 
bridge and is now settled in the ministry.* Mr. Cofl5n is a well known mer- 
chant in this city, and I have the pleasure of seeing him here to-day. 

I cannot help noting the absence of many who were then conspicuous. 
Those venerable men, the pillars of this society : Messrs. Porter, Andrews, 
Aubin, Lunt, Da^^enport, Williams and others have gone to their rest. Their 
memory must long remain with you. It is a pleasant reflection that some 
now present will give an account of this festival to those who shall i^artici- 
pate in the next centennial anniversary of this society. I rejoice that I have 
been here to-day ; and that I am able to carry to the end of my days, a rem- 
iniscence so memorable and so delightful. 

At the conclusion of Mr. Tattle's speech, the chairman said it 
was now time to hear from one of the other sex. Woman and 
her rights have an able advocate in a well-known lady who has fa- 
vored us with her attendance at our celebration. It gives me pleas- 
ure to introduce Mrs. C. H. Dall of Boston : 

Challenged somewhat suddenly, ladies and gentlemen, said Mrs. Dall, to 
say a word to you to-day, I puzzled myself with thinking what word would 
be most welcome, at the close of two long and exhaustive services. Almost 
all the "rights of woman" have been disputed at one time or another, but 
at all times the sweet " privilege " of amusiwj, sometimes called her " duty," 
has been accorded her. Nowhere does she exercise this iirivilege with less 
constraint than in the pages of history, and turning one backward glance over 

*Rev. David P. Muzzey of Stow. 



60 SOCIAL FESTIVITIES. 

your town records, I will borrow it for the occasion. Ttie history of New- 
bury is also the history of Essex county. Sixteen streams of the oldest Es- 
sex blood mingle in my own veins, so it is hardly possible that I can feel put 
out from this gathering by anything we find there. The colony of Massa- 
chusetts Bay determined to extend its settlement north and south, chiefly to 
get good pasturage for its cattle, for which there was an ever increasing de- 
mand. No one appears to have foreseen the check to emigration which took 
place in 1640. Hither, therefore, came Ezekiel Rogers, with his soul of 
flame; hither, Christopher Hussey, Francis Swain and Thomas Macy, who, 
after hearing the " pleasure of the court," — chiefly shown in the inflicting of 
fines, and of civil dishonors, because they had not refused to feed the hungry, 
who happened also to be the Quakers — went quietly away to Nantucket, leav- 
ing a few of their descendants to soften the temper of this old town. Hither 
came Percival Lowell and William Longfellow from Hampshire, to whom we 
owe our sweetest verses, and our bravest preachers. Hither Nathaniel Weare, 
descended, as the English story tells us, from that Humphrey, younger son 
of the Courtenays, who settled by the fishing weir in old Devon, and soon 
came to be known by its name. As if in comment on the orthography of it, 
old Newbury proceeds to give somebody a right to the fishing ware. Hither 
came Thomas Hale of King's Walden, where his bed-chamber had been built 
in the time of Edward the Confessor. Hither from Ipswich and Salem came, 
on court days, William Hathorne and Samuel Symonds, the latter unfortu- 
nately not transmitting his own name with his own virtues to the present, 
while his companion, the only man in those early days who is reported to 
have been of "eloquent speech," has given to New England more of her au- 
thors — noble men and noble women both, but especially women — than per- 
haps any other man whose history can be traced. We see — what he foresaw — 
"The House of the Seven Gables " planted right across his way, while one 
of his descendants tells how the old Newbury elm 

* * ''had grasped the ground 

As if it felt that the earth went round." 

Another celebrates the "Battle of the Books," in truly martial strains, or 
brings a "New Atmosphere " to the misty mornings of the Merrimac. A 
third takes Provencal songs, and with sweetest music of her own enriches all 
our tongues A fourth, less graciously in all your eyes, battles for those 
"rights," which most men still consider "wrongs." 

Human nature looks just the same on the pages which record Newbury's 
golden age, as it does .to-day, set into the iron girdle of the earth's railways. 
In 1638 town and county remitted all their rates to enable Dr. John Clarke 
to make as much as he would out of the cattle he had imported from Durham 
— but that did not prevent his going back to Boston in 1640, to build wharves 
and sell lumber. When cattle would not sell something else must. Yet he 
had won two foreign diplomas meanwhile, one by trepanning and one by 
"cutting for the stone." It was at ihis very time that Winthrop complained 
how every man "wished to buy cheap and sell dear," the people of old New- 
bury included; but in spite of his bad opinion of his fellow men, when he 
" fell into loss," through the dishonesty of his bailiff, it was one of those 
whom his i-eligious narrowness had injured, that first stepped forward to his 



SOCIAL FESTIVITIES. 61 

relief. It is a pleasant thing, doubtless, to share the ancestral honors of 
the governor's name. I hold it a pleasanter to count among my own "for- 
bears " four men at least, whom his prejudices deprived of swords ; but proud- 
est of all, I think, in view of the controversies that characterized his time, 
should be the descendants of Eichard Dummer. 

The old records tell us some odd secrets now and then. We find by a price 
fixed for clap-boards, that they were once called cleft or claft boards, split as 
they then were by the axe. Dog nature has changed as little as the human, 
for, on May 11, 1644, " dogges were ordered to be tyed three weeks thereafter 
by one legge," and if one "bee found scrajnug up fish in a corne-fielde, the 
owner of him shall pay 12 pence, beside the damage the dogge doth." But it 
would almost seem as if men had changed natures with women, for some were 
"presented" for "wearing gold and silver lace with points at their knees! " 
It was not without reason that our forefathers objected to such foppery. The 
commonwealth was still too young to spare the labor of any of her children, 
and not even an ' eight-hour man ' could do his day's work in this toggery. In 
proportion as lives are useful, they are,excepton festival occasions, unadorned, 
and so adorned the most. John Hull was made mint master the same year, 
and when his tiny daughter married Judge Sewall, she stepped into one of 
his big scales, and he weighed her down with thirty thousand pounds in pine 
tree shillngs. It is not likely she was ever " presented " for wearing a silk 
hood, but the wife of "godly Richard Knight" was, and he from his sick 
bed forced to prove that he was worth two hundred pounds. That the woman 
was acquitted did not prevent his being obliged, poor man, to pay a fine I 
Then came Elizabeth Randall, pi-esented for reproaching goody Silver in such 
terms as " base lieing devill, base lying tode" and "base lying jade." Truly the 
" teaching elders " of Newbury "carried it lovingly with their people" as 
" The Wonder Working Providence" of Johnson asserted, if this was their 
idea of " reproaches ! " 

How did it happen that men and women were compelled to sit in separate 
seats in those good old days ? Were the church of England men in Crom- 
well's time as troublesome as the Corinthians in Paul's? In 1677 certain 
young women had leave to build a new seat for themselves in Newbury 
church, a sign that they held themselves rather better than their neighbors. 
If they had special reasons they kept them to themselves, and nobody sus- 
pected what they were till certain aggrieved young men stole into the church, 
broke up the new pew, splitting the fine chairs and destroying much glass. 
Seventy-six of the principal inhabitants thought proper to petition the court 
to mitigate their fines, and after that, let us hope, the young women sat in 
peace rather than pieces. The right of speaking in public, not yet accorded 
to women, was often vindicated in peculiar ways. In July 1677, Judge Sewall 
saw a Quaker woman come into " Newbury meeting " in a canvass sack, with 
a blackened face, which created an "amazing uproar." This was the poor 
creature's silent protest against the bigotry of her time. 

Newbury has nothing to reproach herself with in connection with the dark- 
est hour of this century. Only one witch was ever presented from Newbury, 
poor goody Morse, the victim of the tricks and ventures of her own mis- 
chievous grandson ! It is said the "goodness" of Mrs. Hale put a stop to 



62 SOCIAL FESTIVITIES. 

the delirium which began in Salem village twelve years after. One who car- 
ries the blood of Simon Bradstreet in her veins, records with pleasure that 
his firmness steadily reprieved the poor old grandmother, until the excitement 
passed, and it was possible to save her life and character. The noble old gov- 
ernor found his support in the people, the magistrates steadily opposing her 
reprieve. When she was dying, years after, she was in much "darkness of 
spirit." A neighbor said : — " Did you then consort with the devil ?" "No !" 
she said vehemently, " but I bore not patiently the chastening of the Lord, 
Sick, and in prison, I resented the wrong they had done me." And so, final- 
ly, she came to her peace. 

In the spring of 1767, the young ladies of Newbury heard a sermon from 
the Rev. Mr. Parsons, in his own house, from the words, — "She layeth her 
hands to the spindle and her hands hold the distaff," a superfluous effort, it 
would seem, for the fair creatures immediately presented his wife with two 
hundred and seventy skeins of good yarn, refreshing themselves with "lib- 
erty tea," made of rib-wort! 

If Lady Mary Wortley Montague had been here, she would probably have 
saved the town from some of its foolish legislation on the subject of small 
pox, and we cannot help being reminded of poor Aquila Chase, who was not 
allowed to gather green peas on Sunday, 1646, however he might suiier with 
scurvy, when we read in a newspaper of January 1791, the statement that 
Sunday schools had just been established in Philadelphia, and these words 
following: — " Pity they did not undertake this on a week-day, and not lay a 
foundation thus for the profanation of the Sabbath." 

Now that slavery has ceased in the land, it is pleasant to read in the "Body 
of Liberties," composed by the "Simple Cobbler of Agawam," and adopted 
by Massachusetts in 1641, the words — "There shall never be any bond slavery, 
villeinage or captivitie amongst us," sustained by Exodus xxi, 16, and pleas- 
ant to me at least, to find Governor Bradstreet reminding the Lords of the 
Privy Council of this, as late as 1680. 

But Newburyport may remember with peculiar pride that when, in 1773, 
Caesar, a colored man, prosecuted Richard Greenleaf of this town for holding 
him in bondage, John Lowell, who afterwards took care to protect Massachu- 
setts from this curse, was even now ready to protect her humble citizen, and 
both pleaded and won his cause. 

The women of Newburyport are very dear to me. Of one of her loveliest 
daughters, sacred to all our memories, linked in them especially to the joys 
and sorrows of little children, I can never think without a tearful swelling at 
my throat. She made my own youth charming, and the matrons of to-day, 
who were her glad companions, do not need that any one should do more 
than name this vanished glory of your church and Sunday school,* for New- 
bury — 

"As yet the town remaineth 

A refuge of the free, 
As when true-hearted Macy 

Beheld it from the sea. 
God bless the sea- beat "harbor" 

And grant for evermore 
That Charity and Freedom "sit 

Beside her church's door." 

*Sarah S Balch, born in Newburyport Feb. 8, 1821, died the wife of Frederic Beck of Boston, 
April 25, 1848. 



SOCIAL FESTIVITIES. 63 

After this glaiice at the early settlers and some of the character- 
istics of the men and women of Essex county in Kew England, it 
will be pleasant, said the chairman, to hear a voice from old Eng- 
land ; and I will introduce Mr. James H. Hartley, now a resident 
of Newburyport, and engaged in the work of the Christian minis- 
try, having a temporary engagement with the Middle street Uni- 
versalist society ; 

Mr. Hartley responded in a few words. He said that although brother 
May had coupled his name with the Universalist society he felt himself so lit- 
tle of a Universalist as to be hardly worthy to be called one, yet he was pleased 
to have been invited to be present upon such an interesting occasion. He 
said he had attended many such public celebrations in Europe, and had hard- 
ly thought it possible to have such a one as pleasant as this and with such 
good speech-making without the assistance of champagne. He was glad to 
find tbat it was so, and thought that it argued well for the social condition in 
the United States. Everything seemed so pleasant and agreeable — the ser- 
vice, the collation, the speakers, and last but by no means least, the ladies 

that he regretted such occasions were so few and far between. He remarked 
that it was a good thing to know that the relations between the Unitarian 
and Universalist societies of Newburyport were so cordial and amicable, and 
hoped that they might so continue. 

The occasion continued so full of enjoyment to the company that 
all present appeared to regret that the day was so near its close as 
the chairman apprised them that there was time only for one speech 
more and he would call upon another native of England Mr. 
Calthrop, who would close the festivities, adding that it was a rare 
thing to have two graduates of Oxford to grace an occasion like 
ours. Mr. Calthrop corrected Mr. May and said he was from Cam- 
bridge, mother of our Harvard, claiming that as he came from 
Boston, England, and was a graduate of the original Cambridge 
University, he had a better right even than Mr. May to be present. 
Said Mr. Calthrop, " I welcome you, sir ; I am very glad to see you 
here!" The speaker concluded his brief remarks in his animate; 
and characteristic manner, by saying that it would be gratifying 
to know what his old parishioners of the Pleasant street society 
had been doing in the long years which had separated him and 
them, for their own improvement and to help the world's progress 
in virtue, knowledge and free thought, and he should be glad to see 
more of them, and would meet them at the church the next even- 
ing, when he would tell them some things he had been thinking 
about. 

A short prayer and a benediction from Mr. Muzzey closed this 
memorable religious and social festival. 



NOTE BY THE COMPILER. 



In arranging for the printing of the oration, which is a valuable contribu- 
tion to ecclesiastical history, it was thought desirable also to connect with it 
as complete a report of the other anniversary proceedings as could be obtained 
and were worth preserving for future reference. To do this it was necessary 
to call on the speakers at the collation, for a reproduction of their remarks, 
which were in every instance extemporaneous. The several requests met, as 
will be perceived, with a kindly response, involving more or less delay, which 
added to the regret, that in the otherwise excellent and thorough arrange- 
ments of the committee, a stenographer had not been employed. This would 
have been done had so great a success as attended the festival been expected. 
For without such aid it is hardly to be supposed that any fuller report could 
have been given than the one which appeared in the Newburyport Daily 
Herald of the next morning, in addition to the printed advance copy of the 
historical address. 

The failure to reproduce all the remarks of the last speaker is to be regret- 
ted, as well as the inability to recall all those of the chairman, whose inspira- 
tion on the occasion and whose happy manner of presiding contributed so 
essentially to the afternoon's enjoyment. It must also be said here, in justice 
to his predecessor, in alluding to the remarkable restoration of Miss Andrews 
to health, that Rev. Mr. Fox omitted to say how much she and the 
world were indebted to his influence for the active life of usefulness which 
she subsequently led for more than a quarter of a century. 

It should be stated here, also, that much regret was felt at the shortness of 
the day, which prevented the chairman from calling upon other speakers pres- 
ent, and from reading responsive letters and expressions of regard for the ven- 
erable institution, received from clergymen and laymen ; some of whom are 
representatives of families which have been among the pillars of the church 
through generations. Several of these communications will be found in the 
appendix. 

If this was a proper time and this explanatory note a proper place for any 
expression of the personal feelings of the compiler and of his own vener- 
ation for this cherished institution, commencing with the ordination of its 
fourth minister, the recollection of early indebtedness to it for improve- 
ment, growth aq^l self-culture, would still compel him to say, in the language 
of the Hebrew poet, — If I for get thee, Jerusalem, may my right hand for- 
get her cunning. 

C. J. B. 



APPENDIX. 



"MouirrAiN View House," I 

Whitefield, N. H., October 15th, 1875. ( 

My Dear Mr. May: Few things could give me greater pleasiire than to 
participate in so interesting an occasion as the celebration of the one hun- 
dred and fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of j^our church. I thank you 
and the church, which you represent, for this friendly remembrance; but 
your letter has found me amid the White Mountains, where a pressure of 
imperative duties, from which I cannot be released, renders it impossible for 
me to leave. I feel therefore compelled, with great regret, to be absent from an 
occasion which must be, to all connected with it, of the most sacred interest, 
and which has in itself an historical importance. 

Many of my earliest memories are connected with your church. One of 
the earliest addresses I ever gave, and the first which was printed, was pre- 
pared at the request of your society, and delivered in your church upon the 
subject of the Religious Education of the Young. This was in 1835 — exactly 
forty years ago. 

In after years, when invited to supply the pulpit, which I did for many 
months, my connection with the church throughout was wholly harmonious 
and of the most agreeable character. During this time I taught a Bible class 
in the Sunday school, many of the pupils became united with the church, 
and several have since fulfilled noble services in the religious world. 

Many of the most devoted Christians I have ever known were identified 
with your church, and I consider it one of the privileges of my life that I 
have known them. 

Twenty years have passed since I was associated with the church in New- 
buryport. I shall never cease to cherish gratitude for the expressions of es- 
teem which were extended and for the religious associations which were there 
enjoyed. 

With the best wishes for the church and for that community in which it 
stands as a fountain of spiritual life, I remain, 

Faithfully yours, 

R. C. WATERSTON. 



66 APPENDIX. 

Rev. a. B. Muzzey. formerly pastor of the society, remarks as follows : 
The service assigned me in the religious exercises I regard as a special honor; 
for it appears the First Parish in Newburyport led the way in the introduc- 
tion in this vicinity of the practice of reading the scriptures in public wor- 
ship. This society had the honor, too, of leading the way in the great cause 
of education. The main argument in the petition for a separation from New- 
bury, was that the people here were not properly accommodated with public 
schools. The First Parish was always foremost in carrying forward this 
work. They decided on the location of the schools, the masters' salary, and 
in effect sustained and managed the schools. This parish, while yet a part of 
Newbury, in 1735, voted to add thirty pounds to the thirty raised by the town 
towards hiring another school master. This spirit has been transmitted to 
their descendants in every age. From some personal knowledge, as one of the 
school committee for several years, I can testify that your noble school sys- 
tem has never found more earnest and active supporters than among the 
members of the Fii-st Religious Society. 

Up to the year 1714, that branch of education embraced in sacred music, 
was compelled to rely on five tunes for its subsistence in this whole religious 
community. In that year the Rev John Tufts of Newbury published a psalm 
book of 28 tunes. This bold act was resisted by many, who said that " sing- 
ing by inspiration of grace was infinitely better than by written notes." 
Many unhappy mortals having no ear or taste for music, unhesitatingly de- 
clared that "/a, sol, la was but popery in disguise." That this society had 
no dread of fa, sol, la as a part of education is apparent from the following 
vote which they passed so early as 1730. Voted that " no children be sent to 
the school-master but what can read well in a, psalter." 

Our good fathers soon learned that the best way to put down popery, which 
was their dread and horror, was not only to secure good preaching, but to en- 
courage good music in the church. They saw also in prophecy what is becom- 
ing to us open vision, that so long as we can maintain our public schools, and 
keep them broad and uusectarian, free to all, of every church and name, we 
have no cause to fear the undue ascendency of any one branch of the great 
church universal. 

. The noble motto of Rev. John Lowell, so fitly heading the invitation of 
your committee, so nobly acted out by himself, is good for us ministers of 
this age. Let its catholic temper pass down to all who shall ever fill the 
pulpit of the First Church of Newburyport. 



Rev. Horatio Wood, of Lowell, in deeply regretting that he was prevent- 
ed from engaging in the celebration, added some personal recollections of the 
society in the latter part of the ministry of Dr. Andrews : 

Remembering the figures, 1801, over the pulpit of the present church edifice, 
says Mr. Wood, my recollection goes back to within a single decade of that 
time. Tithingmen were not then extinct. I shall never forget the painful 
grip upon my arm when about four years old, made by one of these Sunday 
police, just outside of my father's gate, and of being carried to him with a 
severe rebuke for venturing into the street on the Lord's day out of meeting- 



APPENDIX. 67 

time. In my early days the leading men in the church wore their long cues ; 
the minister wore breeches or short clothes, with silver knee-buckles and 
large buckles to their shoes. 

Colonel Wigglesworth, of revolutionary fame, was a conspicuous member of 
the parish, dressing in similar costume and wearing a three-cornered hat. 
Notes used to be read from the pulpit, desiring prayers in sickness, death, af- 
fliction, and for sea-faring men "gone to sea," rendering thanks for "a safe 
return;" and married people, in their gratitude, thus publicly returned 
thanks "for mercies received." The pews then were filled with large families 
(I was one of eleven children). Many of the little ones in church were 
obliged, for want of room, to sit on crickets. These large families assembled 
for worship, and filling the pews, presented a beautiful sight to my youthful 
experience. I congratulate myself that I received religious instruction in the 
Pleasant street church. Dr. Andrews was my teacher first in simple lessons 
in a room in the Court House. This was before Sunday schools were gener- 
ally established. His discourses from the pulpit were not controversial but 
straightforward utterences of undisputed truths, with their application to daily 
temper and life. The proofs of his wisdom and his example were manifest 
in his family and many other families in his parish. His exchanges were 
with eminent divines: Dr. Popkin, Dr. Parker, Dr. Nichols, Mr. Brazer, Dr. 
Ware and Heny Ware, Professor Noyes, Dr. Channing, Mr. Pierpont, Dr. 
Lowell. It was a privilege I highly prized, listening to these and others. 
The good influences which have gone forth fi'om this pulpit, upon human 
hearts, should endear it to the present members of the parish and make the 
sustaining of the First Church in Newburyport a great and sacred trust. 



"Lin WOOD Hill," ) 
Rhinebeck, N. Y., October 16, 1875. ) 

The social and oflScial connection with your society and church, of both my 
paternal and maternal ancestors, for scarcely less than four generations ; the 
strong attachments, impressions, and teachings of my earliest years ; my own 
long and pleasant association, both personally and officially, during my earli- 
er manhood, and for a full generation, with almost all its members, many of 
whom have passed on, while many still remain ; my fond recollection of those 
departed friends ; my^gratitude that one of the earliest of the religious socie- 
ties which have adopted for their fundamental principles those of your noble 
motto of unity in essentials, liberty in non-essentials and charity for all, still 
remains consistent, firm, and prosperous ; all these combine to excite in me 
the most lively interest in your proposed anniversary services. I deeply re- 
gret, therefore, that duties and obligations here, which just now press upon 
me with peculiar force, will not permit me to indulge my sincere and earnest 
desire to participate with you on so interesting an occasion. Please accept 
my warmest thanks for your very tempting invitation, and believe me to be, 
with strong personal attachment to a majority of your number, and with 
most respectful consideration for each and all, 

Very truly &c., 

C. H. HUDSON. 

J. A. Frothingham and others, committee. 



68 APPENDIX. 

It would be gratifying to add to these replies many others received from 
former members of the society, containing similar warm expressions of attach- 
ment, but it is hardly within the prescribed limits of the narrative. Among 
those present at the celebration, it may be interesting to remark, were ten of 
the Lowell family of Boston, lineal descendants of the first pastor of the 
parish,and in this number were included Mr. John Amory Lowell and his son 
Judge John Lowell. 



The Lowell Mansion. There is conclusive knowledge that this old dwel- 
ling house, originally situated on State street, was removed, as stated in the 
historical address, from the present Public Library lot to Temple street, where 
it now stands and is called the Fitz house ; having been the property of 
the Fitz family for several generations. It has become historic ; interesting 
to the First Religious Society as the former abode of its first pastor, and to 
the antiquary for the panel which was once in it. A slip, cut from an old 
Newburyport Herald, has been given to us, as the last form of this appendix 
is going to press, and is copied here entire : 

An Old Relic. The first house [now the second] on the right hand side 
of Temple street as you enter it from State street, was formerly the residence 
of the Rev. John Lowell, the first pastor of the Third Church in Newbury, 
now the First Church in Newburyport. This house originally stood in State 
street, where the Tracy house now stands. It must be more than a century 
old. In a back room, supposed to have been the study of Mr. Lowell, on a 
large panel over the fire-place, is a curious old painting, more remarkable, 
certainly, as a curiosity than as a work of art. About two-thirds of the panel 
is taken up with what seems to be a representation of some volcanic moun- 
tains. The other third contains a picture of a " Ministers' Meeting." Seven 
divines, most of them with countenances indicative of a dood deal of the 
odium theologicum, with huge white wigs, gowns and bands, are sitting on 
high-back chairs, around a table, in solemn conclave. On the table are a 
Bible, a candle, a bowl of tobacco and a lot of pipes. They seem to be list- 
ening to or criticising a manuscript, probably some heretical utterance of the 
new views of their day. These worthies are in a sort of alcove, over the top 
of which runs this motto : " In necessai-iis, unitas ; in non-necessariis, liber- 
tas; inutrisque, charitas ;'' which may be translated thus: In essentials, 
unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in both, charity. Who painted this picture, 
and whether the faces are likenesses or not, is more than we can tell. The 
work is rude enough. The artist seems to have had a sovereign contempt for 
the laws of perspective. The Bible stands inclined a little, without any sup- 
port, and the most natural things about the whole affair are the pipes and the 
wigs. The painting must be very old, as Mr. Lowell was ordained in 1726 
and died in 1767. We hope this ancient relic will be carefully preserved. It 
furnishes a curious contrast to the present times. Such formidable ministers' 
meetings have passed away, and white wigs have lost their power. " Tetnpora 
mutantur et nos mulamus, in illis." 

There is no time to look up the date of the paper which contains this arti- 
cle ; but it was written within a year or two of the close of Mr. Fox's pastor- 
ate, and was probably contributed by him. To his immediate successor be- 
longs the credit of placing this memorial in the possession of those who value 
it. Colonel Higginson, when a resident of Newburyport, bought the panel of 
the present owner of the house (Mr. George Fiti) for James Russell Lowell. 



APPENDIX. 69 

The Parsonage Lot. The identity between the Public Library lot and 
the old parsonage is established by the following conveyances, according to 
memoranda furnished by Amos Noyes : 

1. William Dole to Stephen Greenleaf, 2 March 1719, 2 acres ; recorded in 
Essex registry book 21, leaf 192. 

2. Stephen Greenleaf to Edmund Greenleaf, 2 acre (8 rods broad on 
Greenleafs Lane) ; book 21, leaf 192-3. 

3. Edmund Greenleaf to John Cheyney (1723) ; book 41, leaf 80. 

4. John Cheyney to Thomas Brown, jr. ; book 47, leaf 81. 

5. Deed commencing thus : " To all Christian People Greeting, Know ye 
that Thomas Brown, jr. of Newbury in the county of Essex in His Majesty's 
Province of ye Massachusetts Bay in New England, Yeoman an Butcher" 
conveys to John Lowell, clerk, date 23 May 1726, consideration £320 in bills 
of credit, land described as "2 Acres of Land," with a dwelling house and 
barn, bounded " easterly by Greenleafs Lane, southerly by the land of John 
Coffin, westerly by the land of Benaiah Titcomband northerly partly by land 
of Parker Greenleaf or Ambrose Perry." Book 48, leaf 207. 

6. John Lowell counsellor inherits from his father John the pastor in 1767, 
and with Elizabeth Lowell widow and Sarah Lowell wife, conveys to Patrick 
Tracy. Elizabeth received 5 shillings for her dower ; recorded in book 128, 
leaf 257; date 20 July 1771 ; consideration £920. 

7. Patrick Tracy's will dated 16 Oct. 1788, recorded in book 60, leaf 50, 
probate records (O. Sen). Also inventory of Patrick Tracy's estate 7 April 
1791 ; book 61 leaf 117, probate Records. 

8. Thomas Russell and Elizabeth ux. to Timothy Dexter, quit claim ; date 
8 April 1791 ; book 153, leaf 76. Witnessed by John Lowell, esq. and John 
Lowell jr., and undoubtedly written by the former, who also takes the ac- 
knowledgment. Dudley Atkins Tyng administrator with the will annexed 
of Patrick Tracy to Timothy Dexter— quit claim— 6 Apr. 1791 ; bk. 153, 1. 76. 

9. Timothy Dexter, of Chester, Rockingham Co., N. H., and Elizabeth 
his wife to John Greenleaf, dated 9 April 1796. Acknowledged in Connecti- 
cut. Consideration $8400 ; book 159, leaf 273. 

10. John Greenleaf and wife Elizabeth to James Prince ; date 11 March 
1800; consideration $9000; book 166, leaf 220. 

11. Sarah Doane, wife of Samuel D. Doane of Boston, Mary L. Prince, sin- 
glewoman, Ann L. Jewett wife of Nathaniel Jewett of Washington city and 
Wm. H. Prince, heirs and devises of James Prince, to William Manning ; 
consideration $5000; date 16 June 1830; book 257, leaf 91. 

12. William Manning to Jeremiah Colman, 4 Sept. 1830; rec. Essex reg., 
book 257, leaf 202. 

13. Jeremiah Colman conveyed to Moses. Colman an undivided half of the 
premises. ( ?) 

14. Moses Colman and wife to Wm. Ashby 5 Nov. 1850, consideration 
$3000— undivided half of 63 rods 89-100; rec. book 437 leaf 15. 

15. Wm. Ashby and Ann Ashby, Jeremiah Colman and Mary Colman, to 
Edward S. Moseley, Joshua Hale and Charles M. Bayley, trustees ; considera- 
tion $6000; date 16 April 1864; rec. book 667, leaf 115. 

16. Edw. S. Moseley, Joshua Hale and Chas. M. Bayley, trustees, to the 
Mayor and Aldermen of the City of Newburyport, 22 Sept. 1805. 



GENEALOGY OF THE LOWELL FAMILY. 



(Compiled by Amos Noyes.) 



FIKST GENEKATION". 

Mr. Percival Lowle was born 1591, at Yardley ( ?) in Worcestershire, Eng- 
land, where the family had lived for nine generations. He emigrated from 
Somersetshire in 1639, with his wife Elizabeth Percival and his three chil- 
dren, John, Richard and Joan. Percival was named after his mother, who 
was an heiress, and whose maiden name was Percival. He was one of the 
original proprietors of Newbury. 

SECOND GENERATION. 
The children of Percival and Elizabeth Lowle were 

1. John, b. in England ; d. July 10, 1647 ; 

2. Richard, b. in England. 

3. Joan, b. in England ; m. J. Oliver. 

THIRD GENERATION. 

The children of John Lowle 1st son, by his first wife were 

1. John, b. in England ; m. Hannah Proctor of Dorchester 1653. 

2. Mary, " " 

3. Peter, " 

4. James, " " 

5. Joseph, b. in Newbury, Mass., in 1639. 
By his second wife, Elizabeth Goodell, 

6. Benjamin, b. in Newbury, Sept. 12, 1642. 

7. Thomas, " " Juse 11, 1644. 

8. Elizabeth, " " Feb. 16, 1646 ; m. Philip Nelson of Rowley 
1 Jan. 1C66. 

FOURTH GENERATION. 
The children of John Lowle and Hannah Proctor were 

1. John, b. at Boston, 26 Aug. 1655 ; d. soon. 

2. Mary, " " 7 Jan. 1658. 



71 APPENDIX. 

When his wife d. he moved to Scituate, m. Elizabeth Sylvester 24 Jan. 1659 ; 
by her he had 

3. John, birth recorded in Boston, 7 Apr. 1660. 

4. Joseph, d. soon. 

5. Patience, b. 7 Oct. 1668. 

6. Elizabeth, d. soon. 

7. Ruth, b. 11 July 1665. 

The second wife died in 1666, and he married her sister, Naomi Sylvester, and 
moved to Rehoboth5 by Naomi he had 

8. Phoebe, d. soon. 

9. Margaret, b. 20 Oct. 1667. 

10. Samuel, b. 1 Aug. 1669, d. soon. 

11. Samuel, b. 30 Jan. 1671. 

12. Elizabeth, b. 1 Mar. 1673. 
Removed to Boston and had 

13. Ebenezer, b. 1675 : m. Elizabeth Shaler 20 Jan. 1694 ; d. 1711. 

14. William, b. 3 Jan. 1676. 

15. Mehitable, b. 7 Jan. 1677. 

16. Benjamin, b. 5 Nov. 1679. 

17. Nathaniel, b. 25 Feb. 1681. 

FIFTH GENERATION. 

Ebenezer Lowell, father of the pastor, resided in Boston. The children of 
Ebenezer Lowell and Elizabeth Shaler were 

1. Ebenezer, b. 21 Oct. 1697, d. soon. 

2. Michael, b. 5 Mar. 1699, d. soon. 

3. Ebenezer, b. 5 June 1701 ; m. Mary Reed of Marblehead, 

4. John, b. 14 Mar. 17C4, d. 1767. 

5. Michael, b. 22 Dec. 1709. 

SIXTH GENERATION. 

The children of John Lowell (pastor) and Sarah Champney — m. 23 Dec. 1725 
(daughter of Noah and Sarah Tunell Champney) were 

1. John, b. 21 Aug. 1735 ; d. 5 May 1736. 

2. John. b. 17 June 1745 (o. s.) ; d. 1802, 

Sarah Champney Lowell died 28 June 1756, aged 52. He married Elizabeth, 
of Hampton Falls, widow of Rev. Joseph Whipple, daughter of Robert Cutts. 
No children. She died in 1805, aged 95. 

John Lowell, the son of the pastor, was eminent, and filled the offices among 
others of Judge of United States Circuit Court and member of Congress. 

SEVENTH GENERATION. 

John Lowell, LL.D. son of the pastor m. 3 Jan. 1767 Sarah Higginsou, dau. 
of Stephen H. and Sarah Higginson of Salem, by whom he had 3 children, 
1. Anna Cabot, b. 30 Mar. 1768, d. Dec. 1810. 



72 APPENDIX. 



4 



H^' 



2. John, b. 6 Oct. 1769, d 1840. A noted political writer on Federalist 
side. 

3. Sarah Champney, b. 1 Jan. 1771, d. 1851. 

Sarah Higginson Lowell d. 5 May 1772, aged 27, at Newbury, and he m. Susan 
Cabot 31 May 1774, dau. of Frances Cabot; by her he had 2 children, 

4. Francis Cabot, b. 7 April 1775, d. 10 Aug, 1817. The founder of 
Lowell, Massachusetts; father of John Lowell who founded Lowell 
Institute. 

6. Susan M. Cabot, b. 28 Dec. 1776, m. Benj. Gorham, d. 26 Feb. 1810. 
Susan Cabot Lowell d. 30 March 1777 and John Lowell m. 27 Jan, 1778 for 
his third wife Rebecca Tyng, widow of James Tyng of Dunstable, and dau. 
of James Russell ; by her he had 

6. Rebecca Russell, b. 17 May 1779, d. 1853. 

7. Charles, b, 15 Aug. 1782. d, 1841. Father of Mrs. Mary Putnam the 
authoress, and James Russell Lowell the poet. 

8. Elizabeth Cutts, b. 8 Dec. 1783, d, 1864. 

9. Mary, b. 31 May 1786, d. 1789. 

Judge Lowell died in 1802 and his widow 15 Sept. 1816. 



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